Kelsey Richardson tapped both goal posts twice, spun her stick, squatted, jumped and took two deliberate steps forward.

Before the referee’s whistle blew, Richardson would shuffle her feet in place. Though Canisius’ nine free positions rotated around an 8-meter arc, each began with Richardson’s routine and most ended the same way — with Richardson staring down the shooter, swinging her stick down to cover the space between her legs and stopping a Canisius player’s bouncing shot.

In an improved performance from last week’s outing against Canisius, Richardson stopped 11 of Canisius’ 17 shots and saved six of the Golden Griffins’ nine free positions before being subbed out with six minutes to go. In total, Syracuse stopped seven of Canisius’ free positions. No. 3 SU (3-0) topped Canisius (0-2) for a second straight week, 19-7, Sunday in the Carrier Dome.

“This week, (we) started off with Canisius, so (we) got a little bit more work with them,” Richardson said, “focus more on their scout and their shooters. I think that that helped a lot.”

In the Orange’s Feb. 7 doubleheader against Denver and Canisius, Richardson managed just 10 saves on 29 shots and allowed four goals on eight free positions. But this week, Richardson said she watched film of Canisius, noticing that its shooters shot low on free positions. She tracked the ball well, stopping bounce shot after bounce shot throughout the game.

The first time Richardson didn’t get her stick or body on a shot was 13 minutes into the game. SU had built a 5-2 lead and Canisius’ first goal came when the ball hit a defender’s stick, popped off of Richardson’s shoulder and trickled into the net before she could figure out where the ball had gone.

Over a 10-minute stretch in the first half, Richardson dealt with players slashing through the defense and on the other end, the Orange couldn’t seem to get a goal with Erica Bodt firing a shot that appeared to go off the post. Gait and Bodt motioned to the referee, and Gait asked, “Hey, did that go in?”

“We’re still working on developing some mental toughness,” head coach Gary Gait said, “and that means playing 60 minutes, not taking it too lightly.”

But Gait called a timeout, assistant coach Regy Thorpe handled the defense and Gait broke out a whiteboard for the offense. The defense in front of Richardson regrouped. Despite the breakdown, Richardson still got a piece of nine of Canisius’ 12 shots in the first half. After the timeout, SU never looked back, outscoring Canisius 14-3 the rest of the game.

Richardson executed her best stretch of saves right after the timeout. The goalie dropped to her knees to stop a Canisius free position, swinging her stick in front of the space between her legs. The ball rebounded after the initial save and Richardson popped back up to stop two point-blank shots.

As time ticked off the clock, and the Orange began to close out Canisius, Richardson fed off the energy of SU’s dominance at the end of the game.

Canisius fired a shot wide of the net and Richardson began to run to the end line to get the ball back for SU. The referee initially awarded the ball to Canisius, and Richardson jumped up and quickly glanced at the referee, incredulous at the call. The referee recognized his mistake and handed the ball back to SU.

“It just gives us a lot of confidence … to know she’s got our back,” midfielder Taylor Gait said of Richardson. “She’s always communicating to us what to do, so it’s good.”

Published on February 15, 2015 at 6:42 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati