Syracuse field hockey coach Kathleen Parker’s reaction said it all.

With 11 minutes left in Sunday’s game against Boston College, SU back Becky Kohler dived to the ground, flipping a shot past BC goaltender Lauren Hill.

Parker waved the ball toward the goal from the sideline. When the ball sailed wide right, she flopped her hands to her forehead in frustration.

It was a telling reaction as No. 20 Syracuse dropped its first conference game of the season yesterday, 2-0, to the Eagles at Coyne Field. Boston College (8-2, 2-0 Big East) put in two early goals that SU never recovered from.

Syracuse (5-4, 1-1) spent the first 10 minutes on attack, getting two scoring opportunities. But the Orangewomen couldn’t finish the job.

“We have a problem with productivity this year,” Kohler said. “We work so hard to get to the 25 (yard line), and then we don’t get any shots off or we give the ball away.”

One such turnover resulted in the Eagles’ first goal, 12:39 into the game. With Syracuse trying to clear the ball, BC’s Christy Zider lunged to her left to scoop up an errant pass before whipping it past SU goalie Audrey Latsko.

Less than four minutes later, Zider slipped past SU’s defense again and dished the ball to Kim French, putting Boston College up, 2-0.

Frustrated and flustered, Syracuse called timeout.

“(Parker) said that the two goals weren’t anything spectacular,” Lindsay Peirson said. “The game wasn’t over, and we needed to regain our composure.”

Syracuse showed signs of life following the timeout, spending five minutes on the attack. But a frustrating trend continued as Syracuse failed to convert on multiple penalty corners.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been effective with that,” Parker said. “We have to work on capitalizing on our opportunities. We still have some confusion with it.”

The confusion continued in the second half as BC completely dominated the flow of the game, spending nearly 15 minutes on attack. Latsko stopped three shots in that span.

Inexperience also contributed to SU’s struggles. With senior Kristin Aronowicz out with a split right pinky finger, Parker went with freshmen Paige Sullivan and Jessica Dahle.

“(The freshmen) did a good job,” senior Michelle Marks said, “but they have a lack of experience in game play.”

“(The Eagles) just were a step ahead of us all day,” Parker said. “We sat back and watched them. I’d rather make mistakes on the aggressive end.”

SU didn’t start playing that way until it was too late. With 10 minutes left, Latsko stirred her teammates from their daze by pointing to the clock. But the deficit proved insurmountable and SU’s mentality too passive.

“We’re trying to finesse everything in,” Marks said. “We need to be a little more selfish with the ball and get another offensive opportunity where we have more people in front of the goal rather than just one person.”

Published on September 29, 2002 at 12:00 pm