Taylor Gait drove toward the Canisius goal and was swarmed by four defenders. The ball got swatted out of Gait’s stick and she could only watch as her teammates picked it up and restarted the offense midway through the second half.

Moments later, Taylor Poplawski’s pass flew past Gait and out of bounds. But this time, there was no defensive pressure. It was an unforced turnover that cost Syracuse possession.

But eventually, Syracuse’s second midfield line connected for a goal when Gabby Jaquith scored from 10 yards away off a pass from Poplawski to make it 17-6.

“I think more than anything, chemisty on the (defensive) end, on the offense, just really getting comfortable,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “… We’re just trying to get two solid lines that can be effective for a full 60 minutes.”

In the No. 3 Orange’s (3-0) 19-7 victory over Canisius (0-2) in the Carrier Dome on Sunday afternoon, Poplawski, Gait and Jaquith struggled to get momentum, combining for four turnovers and seven missed shots. As the SU attack turned in another solid outing, the backup midfielders were the ones who held Syracuse’s offense back.

When the Orange beat Canisius 21-13 last weekend, the trio combined for three goals on five shots and two turnovers.

When the second-liners jogged off after Jaquith’s goal with more than 12 minutes left to play, Gary Gait didn’t acknowledge them. He paced near the substitution box and spun around when they approached. There were no congratulatory high-fives or hugs for the players still trying to work through their inconsistencies.

“We’re getting used to playing with each other and everything and you can’t really control when things like (turnovers) happen,” Taylor Gait said, “so I think we can just learn from those experiences. Me, personally, I can.”

The unit worked through the growing pains throughout the game and it wasn’t an entirely negative performance. Gait finished with two goals, an assist and readily connected on passes with SU’s attacks to create opportunities.

But the up-and-down performance was marred by the opportunities that Syracuse didn’t capitalize on.

“Yeah, definitely it’s frustrating any time there’s a turnover or a lack of communication, it’s hard,” Jaquith said. “… A couple things we can definitely pick up is communication when we’re running our plays. We have a strong lineup and I think there’s a lot of potential for improvement.”

Against the Golden Griffins, the room for improvement was evident.

Canisius scored three consecutive goals to cut the Orange’s lead to 5-4, prompting Gary Gait to call timeout. On the restart, Poplawski blew by her defender down the left sideline and cut to the middle of the field, toward the goal. She passed two Golden Griffins defenders and unleashed a shot that was saved by Rebecca VanLaeken.

Three minutes later, nearly the exact same situation occurred and once again, VanLaeken made the save on Poplawski.

The sophomore midfielder used her speed in space, but couldn’t convert, finishing with four shots and nothing to show for them.

And with four of its next five games against ranked opponents, the head coach said he knows what the Orange can improve on after getting by Canisius, despite a mediocre performance from the second-line midfielders.

“I just wanted to execute the offense … and be a little bit more patient,” Gary Gait said. “I thought we rushed our opportunities a lot and had some turnovers and shots that weren’t necessarily high-percentage.”

Published on February 15, 2015 at 5:17 pm

Contact Paul: [email protected] | @pschweds