CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Nate Solomon found himself in a similar position, with his back to the goal and the ball in his stick. The senior twirled in a similar way, faked right and left and was met by two North Carolina defenders. The Tar Heels didn’t let up, and it led to popped sticks and loose balls out from the Orange’s grasp all game. But that was when it was UNC’s game.

Solomon instead pin-balled and freed himself from the defenders’ encasement. He spun, and met the goalkeeper face-to-face.

“Playing on grass: I think that’s like half of it,” Solomon said. “Being lower, center of gravity when dodging.”

Following an adjustment to North Carolina’s aggressive style, Syracuse (8-3, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) morphed a strong showing at the X from Danny Varello into productive possessions as the offense took over. The Orange, who turned the ball over eight times in the first half and hardly had the ball in the first quarter, resorted to the more meticulous approach that it used to take down Cornell a week ago.

After Syracuse’s win over Cornell, SU head coach John Desko said the Orange took a steadier and more “patient” approach to their bout with Cornell. That was in part for what Cornell has done — its offense, even after an eight-goal outing against SU, still ranks No. 2 in the country. But it’s also for what Syracuse has done, too.

Dating back to the season-opener, Syracuse’s slowest starts in games stem from not only its inability to get possessions off the jump, but also a string of turnovers that disallow its offense from gaining a rhythm. Against Notre Dame, a 13-10 loss in which the Orange trailed 11-3 at halftime, Syracuse committed 14 first-half turnovers in a crushing conference loss. In Chapel Hill, it looked like it was happening again.

“They put the ball on the ground a couple of times,” Desko said.

Syracuse jumped on the scoreboard first, but then North Carolina took control. The Tar Heels swarmed SU every time it had the ball. Two or three defenders enclosed on the Orange every time they approached the cage. Peter Dearth was swallowed behind the goal, Solomon lost the ball running around the cage after a ground ball pickup. When Jamie Trimboli tried to make something happen the next time down the field, the constant swinging jabs of North Carolina sticks knocked the ball to the grass.

Syracuse’s sticks hit the ground three times in the game, and UNC didn’t stop swinging. When Nick Mellen tried to match the Tar Heels’ approach, he dislodged the head of his stick. For the early part of the game, Dearth, Trimboli, Jacob Buttermore and David Lipka tried to create the majority of its offense themselves and SU looked for production from its midfield.

But to reduce turnovers, Syracuse has looked over its past two games to the alternative. Its greatest successes against Cornell came when it worked the ball around and found an attack behind the cage. From there, the offense settled.

“If everybody’s being more comfortable and getting more touches,” Desko said after SU’s win over Cornell, “there are going to be less turnovers.”

Stephen Rehfuss, after a breakout last week, scored two goals to give Syracuse momentum. Varello won the first 10 faceoffs he took, but the Orange didn’t initially make the most of the possessions he won. Then, Solomon scored and the movement allowed the midfielders to produce.

“I think with faceoffs it’s just kind of, ‘Get the ball to the offense,’” Varello said. “The more they have the ball the more rhythm they get into.”

The mishaps and North Carolina’s aggressive play still came: Drake Porter’s pass was deflected on a clear, Solomon dropped a pass right to him, Trimboli threw an errant pass to Rehfuss which forced a shot clock violation. Back working from the midfield, Buttermore tried to cradle and find space near the midfield, but his stick was knocked from his hand.

But Syracuse held possession longer and worked down the shot clock. In the third quarter, UNC’s goalkeeper Caton Johnson made a save and immediately passed the ball out for a clear attempt. But Bradley Voigt’s stick was there first. He intercepted the pass and dished to Solomon, who put in a dagger.

“We were dropping sticks, dropping balls, which is a little sloppy,” Solomon said. “But I think we really refocused, picked it up and the end result is what we wanted.”

Published on April 13, 2019 at 8:40 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary