After Syracuse fell to No. 3 Maryland Monday night, Orange head coach Gary Gait said that poor offensive execution had doomed his squad in a tight game.

Five days later, the Orange offense responded in a big way.

Freshman Taylor Poplawski broke out of a two-game scoring slump by netting four tallies, and sophomore attack Kayla Treanor scored her 100th career goal as the No. 2 Orange (7-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) blew past No. 4 Florida (8-2, 1-0 American Lacrosse) 17-12 in front of 802 fans at the Carrier Dome. Eight different players found the cage for SU, which posted its best scoring day since putting up 18 against Virginia on Feb. 23.

Syracuse jumped on the Gators in the first half, surging to a seemingly-insurmountable 8-3 advantage at the break.

“We scored some goals early and took advantage of the opportunities,” Gait said. “That was key to the game, to establish that lead.”

The early minutes provided a continuation of Monday’s struggles, though. The Orange failed to convert on its first three shot attempts and fell behind when Mollie Stevens snuck a shot past Alyssa Costantino at the 23:30 mark.

Devon Collins finally put SU on the board almost four minutes later when she zipped around the right side of the net for a wrap-around goal.

Florida capitalized on numerous Syracuse turnovers to pull ahead by a score of 3-2, but then the Orange unleashed an offensive tidal wave.

Poplawski tied the game with 14 minutes remaining in the frame. Off the ensuing draw, Treanor broke free in transition and gave Syracuse the lead. Alyssa Murray followed with a goal of her own, forcing Gators head coach Amanda O’Leary to use a timeout and regroup.

It didn’t work. Murray and Treanor both scored again, and Poplawski provided the final dagger of the first period with an opportunistic rebound goal with 1:13 remaining.

“Sometimes you get lucky at those ones,” Gait said. “That’s one thing Taylor Pop does. She gets around the ball and wants to score all the time.”

A big reason for the early explosion was Syracuse’s success in the draw circle. Kailah Kempney and Kirkland Locey split the draws during the first frame.

By the break, the Orange had won 8-of-12 duels. By the end of the game, SU nearly doubled up the Gators with a 20-11 advantage.

“We worked on it all week,” Kempney said. “We haven’t done the greatest in draw controls the past couple games, so we’ve just been working hard on it as a team.”

The Orange’s lead ballooned to eight by the midpoint of the second half, but the Gators didn’t go away easily. Florida’s leading scorer Shannon Gilroy, who entered the game with 40 goals this season, converted twice to highlight a five-goal spurt.

But with the score at 15-12, SU didn’t falter any further. Collins and Katie Webster both added insurance goals in the final minutes to seal the win.

The Orange offense was aided by a great performance from Costantino, who played an entire game for the first time in 2014 and finished with nine saves. She kept Gilroy in check for much of the afternoon, and SU held Florida to its lowest goal tally since a season opening 20-8 loss against North Carolina.

“From preparing all week, we knew (Gilroy) was a really good dodger and she’s a great person up top,” Costantino said. “If she’s going, she’s going. She’s a great player, so really just paying attention to her at all times.”

Syracuse was also perfect on 20 clear attempts. With all units contributing, the end result was a smile of relief from Kempney after the game and a declaration from SU’s senior goalkeeper.

“A tough person is someone who gets knocked down and gets back up,” Costantino said. “So to get back up and beat a No. 4, really good Florida team, is a good win.”

Published on March 15, 2014 at 4:28 pm

Contact Tyler: tfpiccot@syr.edu