Less than four minutes into the second half, Gary Gait called his first timeout as Maryland notched three straight goals. He called Alyssa Costantino to the sideline, replacing the starting goaltender with sophomore Kelsey Richardson, who came in and instantly made a save.

Despite the goalie change, SU couldn’t shut down Maryland’s offense as the No. 4 Terrapins (2-0) beat the top-ranked Orange (1-1) in a 19-11 victory in front of an attendance of 1,445 at the Carrier Dome.

“They played as if they were the No. 1 team in the country,” said Gait, SU head coach. “They played very well, they played fearless and they got draws.”

The Terps struck quickly, scoring their first goal 11 seconds into regulation. The Orange managed to tie the game at six with 5:41 left in the half. But Maryland’s fast-paced offense wore on the Syracuse defense as it let the momentum slip away. Maryland scored two goals in 30 seconds to end the half and never looked back.

Down two at home, the Orange was losing the draw battle – SU won just 4-of-11 in the first half – and was being outplayed defensively.

Maryland’s quick pace strained the Orange’s defensive communication, as the Terrapins scored most of their goals around the crease.

“That’s just a factor of a little more communication on the defense. Someone needs to slide in and expect that cut is coming,“ Gait said.  “We kind of left Becca (Block) out there on an island at times.”

Block was often left to defend alone, and quick cutbacks allowed Maryland to score quickly and easily.

The defensive lapses compounded with a second-half explosion by Maryland’s Katie Schwarzmann, the reigning Tewaaraton Award winner, to effectively eliminate any chance of an SU comeback. Schwarzmann ended the game with seven goals, five coming in the second half.

In the two teams’ meeting last season, Schwarzmann was held to two goals on 10 shots in a Syracuse upset victory.

“She knew it was coming this time, and they planned pretty well.” Gait said. “We battled back and kept battling back and then it became too much in the second half.“

The Orange needed its star in the second half. Attack Michelle Tumolo said after the game Gait told her to take more shots. She did just that, scoring the last two goals of the game. The attack finished with four goals and two assists on seven shots to go along with a yellow card.

As a team, Syracuse racked up four yellow cards, with two coming at critical times in the second half.

Gait said the defensive performance and the stagnant offense were the product of his players not playing with confidence, often second-guessing themselves.

“After one person made a mistake, their head kind of dropped a little bit and the next person,” Gait said.

Syracuse has preached a “so be it” mentality, which Tumolo described as saying the phrase upon returning to the sideline and simply moving on.

Gait is ready to move on. His strategy wasn’t executed the way he would have liked, but he’s ready to get back to work and focus on the team’s next game.

“We had a game plan and we just didn’t execute it the way we should’ve,” Block said. “We were always a step behind them from the beginning of the game.”

Published on February 18, 2013 at 3:00 am

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