Canisius threw everything it had at Syracuse attack Kayla Treanor to shut her down. She was the defensive focus for most of the game, but SU worked around it.

In the first half, it was Halle Majorana that benefited.

Her work from behind the net helped preserve a first half in which Treanor scored just one goal and the team suffered from what Orange head coach Gary Gait called a “mental letdown.”

“If they’re able to score, it’s not really a big deal,” Treanor said of her teammates taking on her scoring burden, “We were scoring really well.”

No. 3 Syracuse (2-0) won the second game of its doubleheader against Canisius (0-1), 21-13, in the Carrier Dome. In her second game after transferring from Maryland, Majorana carried SU’s scoring in the first half, contributing on six of SU’s 10 goals. In all, Majorana tallied 10 points on Saturday with seven coming in the second game.

“It worked out for (Majorana),” Gait said. “You go … shut off the other side with Kayla Treanor, it opens up the field.”

Treanor only managed two points in the game — a total that tied for the second-lowest output of her career. Majorana usurped Treanor’s production, but unlike Treanor, the transfer did her damage from behind the net.

On SU’s second goal of the game, Majorana found a cutting Riley Donahue while moving around the crease to the goalie’s right side. And to make the game 8-2, Syracuse’s biggest first-half lead, Majorana fed attack Kailah Kempney from behind the net for a score.

Consistently, Majorana was last to the Orange’s celebratory huddles because she was hanging around behind the net.

When Majorana got her opportunities, she was lethal near the net. She faked high and low to change her shot angle, something she said she worked on throughout the last two years at Maryland. Her ability to finish near the net was the most consistent part of her game in both games of the doubleheader.

“I’m definitely used to — freshman, sophomore year — shoot high to high, so definitely I worked on that, now I just always have to throw in a fake,” Majorana said.

Majorana played loose throughout the second game. After Canisius took a timeout, she walked toward the restraining line, also the 30-yard line of the field, and moved, if only for a split second, to the Carrier Dome music. At the end of the game, Majorana was talking and laughing with teammates on the sideline.

Her play in the second game was a stark contrast from the first game. Majorana was inefficient in the first game of the doubleheader — she took eight shots and turned the ball over three times in SU’s 18-10 win over Denver — but settled down in the second game. A few of those eight shots came from distance and were easily read by Denver’s goalie.

Her comfort was apparent on the stat sheet, too. She took five shots, put them all on net and scored four goals. In addition, she only turned the ball over twice.

“We talked to her in between games and said, ‘Let the game come to you a little bit,’” Gait said, “… I thought she played much better in the second game and really started to feel real comfortable.”

Published on February 8, 2015 at 12:17 am

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati