Canisius took its time crossing the field after coming out of the tunnel before the start of the second half.

The Golden Griffins looked defeated as they slowly trudged to their sideline. It had been a disheartening first half in which they were outscored by 11 goals, and there were still 20 minutes to play.

Syracuse was dominating on offense. It had controlled draws, executed on scoring opportunities and set the tempo.

The need for a second half was nothing more than a formality.

“You don’t want teams to really feel like they’re in the game,” said SU attack Alyssa Murray. “No matter who you play, you put a couple quick ones up, it really just makes them step back and really worry about what’s going to happen next.”

The Orange came out of the gate strong, scoring the first eight goals in the game’s first 20 minutes. Freshman Taylor Poplawski scored a game-high, and career-high four goals in her first home game, as Syracuse (3-0) cruised to a home-opening 18-6 win over Canisius (0-1) at the Carrier Dome on Saturday in front of 1,442 fans.

Golden Griffs goalie Kayla Scully was forced to fend away shots all afternoon. And even though she made 12 stops, the offensive onslaught was too much for the goalkeeper to handle.

“We have a solid attack,” said SU head coach Gary Gait. “I think the last few years our attack has one of the best if not the best in the country. It’s right there again.”

Poplawski had her first breakout game offensively. Before the season, Gait said that she would be one of the few freshmen who would have a chance to make an effect. On Sunday, everyone saw why.

With 1:46 left in the first half, she wrapped from behind the left side of the goal and flung a shot from across her body into the lower part of the net. Twelve seconds later, she scored a laser off a pass from Murray. And with six seconds to play in the half, she did the same, this time from Kailah Kempney.

In the span of just 1:40, Poplawski  found the back of the cage three times to put the game out of Canisius’ reach before the first half had ended.

“It really feels great to be able to contribute to the team in that way,” Poplawski said. “I hold expectations for myself, and I have goals that I wish to achieve.”

In Syracuse’s first two wins this season, it was the Kayla Treanor and Murray show. The two leading scorers combined for 16 goals in SU’s two contests in Florida in January. Yet on Sunday, several of the players got in the action.

Murray spent much of the afternoon setting up her teammates. She had a game-high four assists.

With 14:27 remaining in the first half, Murray picked up the ball following a Canisius turnover. She sprinted toward the goal and had a shot to score. But instead, she dumped it off to a wide-open Devon Collins, who brought her arms back and whizzed the ball past Scully.

“It’s nice to have other options out there, players with confidence,” Gait said. “We expect everyone to contribute in those (Atlantic Coast Conference) games.”

As the goals continued to pile on, the noise from the Syracuse bench became fainter.

The game was in hand, and it had been for a while. Each goal would only change the score, not the result, which had long been decided.

“We worked hard the past three weeks, went through ups and downs during a long stretch of practice where it’s hard to keep the energy up,” Murray said. “Today was just the next step in our season.

“So I think now it’s really practice time where we’re going to get better as a team.”

Published on February 16, 2014 at 6:02 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3