Taylor Bennett said last Tuesday that Syracuse wasn’t moving well enough in its 2-0 loss to Dartmouth and a change needed to be made.

Two days later, with an attacker running at her, the senior flipped her hips and began to backpedal instead of stepping in to challenge for the ball.

She had help to her left, but that didn’t matter. She shadowed Auburn forward Jessie Gerow’s every dribble – not giving Gerow the edge. Gerow neared the penalty area and forced a shot around Bennett, which goalkeeper Lysianne Proulx gathered calmly.

While Bennett’s efforts were in vain in a 2-0 loss to the Tigers last Thursday night, her play was another example of Syracuse (2-3) committing to the coaching philosophies of its new staff. For defenders, those directions come from first-year assistant coach Harold Warren.

“I think they bought into the process, actually,” Warren said. “We stress accountability, we want you to get the job done yourself.”

Warren’s coaching technique is exactly that: a process. He likens every aspect of preparation to studying; the games to exams. Success on exams depends on how much studying goes into them, and Warren wants his players to approach soccer the same way.

Syracuse defenders have tried to change their tactics in the final third from last year. Instead of being overly aggressive or giving away a costly foul with their backs to the net in 2018, Warren wants his defenders to play a “cat and mouse game” with attackers.

“If you have a wide receiver that doesn’t like to get checked off the line, you check them,” Warren said, “But if they’re super quick you back off a little.”

Like first-year head coach Nicky Adams, Warren is no stranger to building up a program. After taking over the UAB head coaching job in 2011, he coached the Blazers to their first winning season in four years when they went 11-7-2 in 2013. They had won just eight of their 38 games in the previous two seasons.

Warren is now tasked with focusing on a defense that surrendered an Atlantic Coast Conference worst 37 goals in conference play last season. The starting backline – junior Clarke Brown, junior Shannon Aviza, Bennett and sophomore Jenna Tivnan – returns every starter from 2018.

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“It’s a different mentality going into this season,” said Bennett, “People are showing a lot more heart and doing what they have to do.”

Early in the preseason, Warren introduced an isolation drill where players would play a scrimmage on a shortened field, but were only allowed to take the ball from the player they were assigned to mark.

“The onus is on you,” Warren said, “you can’t look left and right and blame somebody else because that’s your player.”

Warren encourages players to come to him with questions from previous game film as well. Warren, Adams and the rest of the staff will mark certain plays, but they expect the players to approach them to discuss specific moments in the game.

While Warren is working to sure up the Orange on the defensive end, he, like Adams, wants the Orange to attack more, Brown said.

“(Warren) tells us to go up when we have numbers up in the back,” Brown said. “If they have one attacker forward we should have two defenders up (in attack).”

The remaining two defenders should then account for the lone attacker, like the situation Bennett found herself in on Thursday night. It allows defenders like Aviza to hover around the 18-yard box, where she buried her first career goal against Siena on Aug. 29.

Five games into last season, the Orange had no offensive output from its defense. Their only goal scorers were midfielders Kate Hostage and Georgia Allen, and forward Sydney Brackett. Hostage is out for the rest of the season, and Allen joins the list of now 10 players on the active roster who are currently injured.

With ACC play beginning on Sept. 20, the Orange’s defense and depth will be tested. They didn’t win a single conference game in 2018, but Warren wants his team to focus on executing a more disciplined defensive approach — instead of one of the strongest conferences in women’s college soccer.

“Your teammates are here to help you,” Warren said, “But as an individual you need to do your job yourself. And if everybody does that and brings it together, then that’s success.”

Published on September 11, 2019 at 12:11 am

Contact Tim: tnolan@syr.edu