Syracuse women’s lacrosse: Orange steamrolled by Boston College, 17-2, on ugly night at CBA

The phrase ‘complete domination’ was coined for something like this.

The Syracuse Orange experienced a collective waking nightmare on Thursday night at Christian Brothers Academy.

Playing their regular season finale at the local prep school, the No. 16 Orange were totally and comprehensively dominated by the No. 2 Boston College Eagles in a 17-2 beatdown that was their third loss in four games and dropped them to 9-7 on the season (5-4 ACC).

This game was non-competitive from start to finish as BC completely owned both ends of the field. The result was one of the worst losses ‘Cuse has ever had, as the Orange’s two goals accounted for the fewest in a single game in program history and the 15-goal defeat was the second-worst margin of defeat ever (16-goal loss to Maryland in 2005 being the worst).

The Eagles took control early and never relented, getting the boulder rolling downhill with seven goals in the first quarter and a 7-0 lead after 15 minutes.

The momentum continued into the second, and a Rachel Clark free-position goal with 3:50 left in the first half made it 10-0 and started the running clock, which would never be taken off.

After taking the 10-goal margin into the half, BC scored the first two goals of the second half to make it 12-0 before ‘Cuse actually got on the board with 3:48 remaining in the third quarter on a right-alley dodge from Caroline Trinkaus that made it 12-1.

In an extremely symbolic moment, Shea Baker, known as a lockdown defender for the Eagles, picked up the ensuing draw control and ran right down the field to score and immediately answer the Orange’s first goal of the game after 41 scoreless minutes. That one was just nasty, and it gave BC a 13-1 lead that they would take to the fourth quarter.

The Eagles never relented despite the margin, with Rachel Clark and most of the other regulars remaining in the game as Clark scored twice more to achieve a new career-high with eight tallies on the night. Carlie Desimone found the net late on a dodge of her own, as she and Trinkaus combined to score the only two points for SU in this one.

In contrast, BC’s stars shined, led by Rachel Clark’s eight goals and nine points. Mckenna Davis finished with five assists and seven points, and Emma LoPinto had five points, as well. On the other end, Shea Dolce was almost-literally unbeatable with 12 saves and a 85.7 save percentage.

The Orange offense couldn’t solve the puzzle all night. They couldn’t pass their way around BC, they couldn’t dodge their way through them, and going to their weave yielded limited results. If they ever did manage a halfway decent look at cage, Dolce was there to remind everyone why she’s in the brief conversation for best goalie in the country. SU didn’t have the ideas or the physicality to match up to a top-two defense in the nation, at worst.

The defense had a disappointing night of losing their off-ball matchups, as a large portion of the goals scored by Clark and LoPinto found them in the middle wide open as the result of a poorly-timed slide or defensive confusion while all eyes were on the ball carrier. To be honest, 17 goals is actually under BC’s season average, so it’s not that disastrous, but ‘Cuse still gave up way too many open looks.

If you’re looking for something that’s not a complete and total negative, the Orange only lost the draw control battle, 12-10. For a ‘Cuse draw unit that’s been wildly inconsistent this season going up against a top-10 caliber unit for BC, that’s a decent outcome on restarts. The Orange also picked up more ground balls on the game, 18-15.

‘Cuse will have just under a week to stew on this one before they take the field again down in Charlotte for the ACC Tournament. As the No. 6 seed, the Orange will play a regular season re-match with the No. 3 seed Stanford Cardinal on Wednesday, April 23 at 8 PM in the quarterfinal round.