While teams across the state are gearing up for the stretch run and beginning to fine-tune for the postseason, the Toll Gate field hockey team seems to have stalled at the starting line.

The Titans began the season on the right foot, playing tough against playoff contenders like Chariho and Smithfield, but have lost their way in recent weeks. Since knocking off city rival Warwick Vets for the team’s first win, Toll Gate has gone 0-3-1 over its last four games. The Titans dropped a 3-0 decision to Burrillville [4-3-2] on Thursday and finished deadlocked at 2-2 in a winnable game against Cranston East [0-8-1] on Friday. Now, with just seven games left on the schedule, Toll Gate is fighting to regain its form in time to make a playoff push.

“We started out strong but we’ve had a bit of a turnaround lately,” Toll Gate coach Jaclyn LaPlante-Beauchemin said. “Even though we weren’t winning early on, I still thought that we were playing well. That has seemed to turn a little though. Maybe losing is starting to take its toll on them, I don’t know, but we have to get back to fundamentals and try to get back on track.”

Toll Gate started well against the Broncos Thursday afternoon but steadily gave up ground as the game progressed. Burrillville, which ranks second in Division II North, wore the Titans down and scored three goals after halftime to break things open. Toll Gate’s defense was solid well early on but came under constant fire in the second half. Burrillville freshman midfielder Brittney Bebeau netted a pair of goals and junior forward Amanda Spink added a third for the Broncos against the Titans’ undermanned roster.

“It is hard with a small team,” LaPlante-Beauchemin said. “There isn’t a lot of backup behind them and these girls are pretty much having to play the entire game. And they can stay strong like that for a half, but fatigue eventually sets in. And you saw that today. They’re aggressive and, overall, I’m happy with our defense. They have a lot of potential.”

The Titans’ defense would seriously benefit from a little help on the offensive end. Toll Gate had one good run from Paige Corwin and Molly Turner in the first half and Laura Henn led one push after halftime, but those possessions represented the Titans’ only two shots in the game. Toll Gate couldn’t get anything going on either drive and was awarded just one penalty corner in the match. The team spent much of Thursday’s contest playing in its own end of the field and, as a result, put a lot of pressure on its defense to hold off the surging Broncos.

“The passing and driving the ball up the field isn’t happening for us and I think we’re helping opponents out by not getting the ball moving as much as we’d like to,” LaPlante-Beauchemin said. “Our offense is good and, when we’re in the cage, we are strong. It’s just getting the ball up there that is hard for us right now. We have to work on our fundamentals on offense.”

The Titans’ recent struggles aren’t without merit. In the last two weeks the team lost a solid 2-0 game to top-ranked Pilgrim [8-0-1] and played well against the Broncos before their second-half collapse. A bigger concern for Toll Gate should be the Titans’ 2-2 draw with Cranston East on Friday.

The Thunderbolts entered Friday’s contest at 0-8, last-place in the North, having scored just one goal and allowed 41 through their first eight games of the season. And with just four points separating the No. 3 through 6 teams in the D-II South division standings, a win would have dramatically helped the Titans.

“Sometimes I think that we are our toughest competition,” LaPlante-Beauchemin said. “We can be our own worst enemy and really beat ourselves. Once we get scored on their mind starts to race and that tends to break them down. We expected it to be a rebuilding year coming in but we got a little overexcited in the beginning of the season at how well we were playing. We got a little ahead of ourselves and we need to readjust. We have to learn to work together cohesively.”

The Titans will host Chariho [3-4-1, seven points] today at 3:45 p.m. and will take on Rocky Hill [2-2-2, six points] Friday at 4 p.m. The Chargers and Mariners both sit directly in front of Toll Gate in the standings. From there Toll Gate will go up against Vets, its lone win of the year to date, and Classical [3-4-1] before closing out its schedule against both division leaders. If the Titans are going to make a run for the playoffs, their window appears open for the next two weeks.

“There are a couple of games that we can win, but I’m not really worried so much about our win-loss record; I’m concerned with how we’re playing as a team,” LaPlante-Beauchemin said. “If we can go back and find the momentum that we had in the beginning of the season then I think they’ll start to feel better about themselves. And, hopefully, that will start to show in their playing.”