LAYTON — Eight games into its first season under new head coach Jason Steiner, Syracuse High girls soccer is still searching for its identity following eight years under tutelage of former mentor Taylor Allen.

Although not new to the coaching ranks — with stops at Ogden, Ben Lomond and Clearfield along the way — Steiner has yet to put his imprint on this team.

“We’re still trying to figure it out. It’s me finding out who the girls are and the best spots for them, but we’re getting there,” Steiner said. “We haven’t played our best soccer yet; probably our most complete game today.”

Good enough for the Titans to total a 1-0 victory over Layton in a Region 1 match Tuesday.

“We’ve had a ton of injuries and the last two games we’ve gotten a couple of players back. At one point we had four ankles, three on crutches … four starters out,” Steiner said.

Syracuse (4-4, 1-1 Region 1) also has third-year junior Abby Affleck, who scored the only goal of the game in the 27th minute.

“It started with a great through ball from the back of the field that went between the good gap,” Affleck said. “Their outside forward hesitated a bit and made the centerback step, and I was wide open. All I had to do was a little tap.”

Old habits are hard to break, but Affleck says Syracuse is gaining on it.

“At the beginning, we had kind of a rough start; new freshmen coming in. We’re all learning how to play as a team and then we have to play as the new coach wants,” Affleck said. “It kind of took us a bit to figure out but I think we’re finally starting to get it. We play really hard and don’t stop, even when we’re tired.”

There was even a marked learning curve that manifested itself midway through the first half, as Layton (4-3, 1-1) had lived at the Syracuse end of the field and put Titan keeper Taylor Sims under constant attack. Then suddenly, the action switched to the other side of the pitch.

“The second half of the first half, we decided after the water break that if we wanted to win, we were going to have to pick it up and play better. We changed to a 4-4-2 so we had extra help in the middle and that helped us out as well,” Affleck said.

Sims benefitted from the extra defensive help and had a relatively easy go of it after the change in Syracuse’s approach, as she controlled the game from between the pipes.

“Keeping your defense organized and keeping your head. If you keep your head, then the rest of the team keeps theirs,” Sims said. “As long as you keep talking to your defense and stay organized, everything works out.”

One of the new players Syracuse has had to work into the system, Sims is a sophomore, her first year in the program. But she seems confident and has her act together.

“I give full effort. All the conditioning, and I played my best in tryouts, which showed myself to the coaches,” Sims said. “If you want something bad enough, like I did, you work for it. I’ve been playing on a comp team since I was 3, playing keeper since I was 5. My whole life.”

While Syracuse’s shift in strategy led to the win, Layton was undone by not being able to implement its game plan.

“We didn’t shoot enough today. In the second half, I bet we had maybe two shots,” Layton coach Tara Ferrin said. “We weren’t pounding the keeper enough to get the goal back we gave up in the first half. It comes down to shooting and finishing.”

Region 1 games are just underway but, for one afternoon, Syracuse did what it needed to do.

“I’m trying to get the girls to press the right way; put the balls in the right spots for our forwards,” Steiner said. “As frustrating as it is, we’re a long way from the end. We just want to keep getting better and better. We’ll see what happens the rest of the region.”

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