Spring Break
The Daily OrangeWSOC | Syracuse shakes up lineup for 1st Big East win
By Andrew L. John
Posted: 9/25/08, 11:16 PM EST Section: Sports
Though Syracuse only needed the first minute of the game to score against Binghamton on Sunday, the Orange needed just about every minute to finish off the visiting Pittsburgh Panthers, 1-0.
Freshman defender Taylor Chamberlain scored the game-winner in the 72nd minute to help SU (4-3-2, 1-0-1) earn its first Big East win. It was also the fifth shutout of the season for the Orange, which scratched out a win despite sticking with a rotation system designed to rest its starting players.
On Sunday, Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon said that he's trying to give his starters as much rest as possible early in the season. He's hoping that if he can properly manage the rotation, giving plenty of rest to everyone, his team is going to be "fitter, stronger, and faster" than its opponents later in the season. Despite the game remaining scoreless for the better part of the game, that strategy appeared to remain in tact.
"It was good for us, though I was actually hoping to make some more changes to save some more legs," Wheddon said. "But I felt that if we made some more changes than it would disrupt what we had going at the time."
Early on especially, defense dominated the game. Pitt had five shots, while Syracuse had four on goal at halftime, and all the shots were contested. Because of Pittsburgh's grind-it-out style, the Orange knew ahead of time that scoring opportunities would be sparse. Wheddon told his team before the game that it would have to beat the Panthers at their own game.
"One of the things I said to the team in the pregame talk was that we know that they're going to try and outwork us, and we are going to have to match them physically and try and out-battle them," Wheddon said. "This shows us that we can grind out wins. This wasn't a particularly pretty game, we had to fight for it."
Syracuse star forward Megan Bellingham was a game-time decision and almost didn't suit up. Wheddon said Bellingham, who is third in the Big East with six goals, is still nursing a few nagging injuries suffered against Binghamton.
Freshman defender Taylor Chamberlain scored the game-winner in the 72nd minute to help SU (4-3-2, 1-0-1) earn its first Big East win. It was also the fifth shutout of the season for the Orange, which scratched out a win despite sticking with a rotation system designed to rest its starting players.
On Sunday, Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon said that he's trying to give his starters as much rest as possible early in the season. He's hoping that if he can properly manage the rotation, giving plenty of rest to everyone, his team is going to be "fitter, stronger, and faster" than its opponents later in the season. Despite the game remaining scoreless for the better part of the game, that strategy appeared to remain in tact.
"It was good for us, though I was actually hoping to make some more changes to save some more legs," Wheddon said. "But I felt that if we made some more changes than it would disrupt what we had going at the time."
Early on especially, defense dominated the game. Pitt had five shots, while Syracuse had four on goal at halftime, and all the shots were contested. Because of Pittsburgh's grind-it-out style, the Orange knew ahead of time that scoring opportunities would be sparse. Wheddon told his team before the game that it would have to beat the Panthers at their own game.
"One of the things I said to the team in the pregame talk was that we know that they're going to try and outwork us, and we are going to have to match them physically and try and out-battle them," Wheddon said. "This shows us that we can grind out wins. This wasn't a particularly pretty game, we had to fight for it."
Syracuse star forward Megan Bellingham was a game-time decision and almost didn't suit up. Wheddon said Bellingham, who is third in the Big East with six goals, is still nursing a few nagging injuries suffered against Binghamton.
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