Blog from Todd Carton
For most of you, Maryland athletics is close to exclusively about two sports – football and men’s basketball. Periodically, other Terrapins teams may appear as proverbial blips on your radar: women’s basketball as they roll to a Big Ten title or reach a Final Four, Sasho Cirovski’s soccer squad as they make their generally annual run deep into the postseason, perhaps the same goes for Missy Meharg and her field hockey team or either of Maryland’s lacrosse teams when the do the same.
I know some folks get passionate about specific sport and in my travels I’ve met a handful who follow almost all the teams that wear Maryland on the front of their jerseys. For those folks in particular, Saturday was a very good day to be a Terp.
In case you missed it, here’s what happened in four sentences:
1) The men’s lacrosse team scored four goals in the final four and a half minutes of regulation rallying from a 9-5 deficit to tie the game before winning 10-9 in overtime at Ohio State to claim at least a share of the Big Ten Championship.
2) The women’s lacrosse team celebrated senior day a week early with a 14-9 win over Michigan in which coach Cathy Reese played every healthy player.
3) The softball team rallied from a 4-0 deficit to win their second straight game over Penn State on a walk off two run home run by catcher Shannon Bustillos.
4) The baseball team picked up their second straight win 9-5 over a quality Cal State Fullerton squad and third straight overall overcoming the loss of starting pitcher Taylor Stiles who was hit in the face by a line drive by Fullerton’s leadoff hitter.
Three of those games were in College Park. If you are in the area and didn’t attend, you missed a chance to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the sun watching the Terps for little or no cost. The softball game had free admission and you could have gotten in to see either of the others for about five dollars.
Let’s get a bit of detail about the lacrosse games.
The official attendance in Columbus was 21,064 the eighth highest for an NCAA regular season game and the Buckeyes treated their fans to a blistering start scoring twice in the first four and a half minutes and jumping out to a 4-0 lead before Jay Carlson got the Terps on the scoreboard with 2:56 to play in the first.
Maryland continued to chip away outscoring Ohio State 3-2 behind goals by Carlson, Matt Rambo and Bryan Cole in the second to trail by two at the half. The situation began to look much better for the Terps when Joe LoCascio scored three and a half minutes into the third to pull Maryland within 6-5.
Then the wheels came off a bit as the Buckeyes scored twice to take a three goal lead into the fourth quarter. When the score reached 9-5 and the clock ticked toward five minutes, I began to write the game off. Silly me.
WIth 4:22 to play, Matt Rambo scored on a play that looked very much like the one on which he scored the winning goal at Rutgers last Sunday. Andrew Walsh, subbing for John Garino, won the next faceoff and Henry West had a good look at the goal but Buckeyes’ goalie Tom Carey made the big save.
West quickly atoned for that by first causing a turnover on OSU’s attempted clear and following that by getting the ball past Carey. With 3:14 to play, the Terps still had a long road in front of them but things were beginning to look interesting.
After Ohio State was whistled for a delay of game penalty, LoCascio took advantage of the man up situation and fired a cross field pass from Cole past Carey. The Terps trailed 9-8 with 1:49 to play.
Continuing his work at the faceoff ‘X’, Andrew Walsh won the critical faceoff and coach John Tillman called timeout with 1:25 to play. Colin Heacock’s game tying shot 16 seconds later came from a nearly impossible angle but somehow found space between Carey and the far post. Though Ohio State won the faceoff, they failed to get a good shot and the game would go to overtime.
When the Buckeyes won the overtime faceoff, Terps fans may be excused if they felt a bit of an adrenaline surge. The official stats credit Matt Dunn with causing a turnover but watching the replay it looked like a back check by Isaiah Davis-Allen with Dunn picking up the ground ball. Nevertheless, Maryland had the possession and went on the attack. Carey came up with a big save on another good look by West but he failed to secure the ball and West regained possession.
The Buckeyes paid dearly for that error. Carlson bumped off his short stick defender to gain some space, rolled the crease from left to right and scored the game winner with 49 seconds to play giving the Terrapins at least a share of the Big Ten Championship.
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Don’t be deceived by the final score in Maryland’s 14-9 win over Michigan in women’s lacrosse. The Wolverines scored three meaningless goals in the last minute of a game in which coach Cathy Reese played her entire roster.
The only senior who didn’t start the game for the Terps was Brooke Griffin and midway through the second half, Maryland’s attacking zone players consisted of: Bryn Boucher, Kacie Longo, Deb Milani, Caroline Wannen, Shelby Scanlin, Lindsay Biondi and Bairre Reilly. Biondi and Reilly scored and the Terps got first half goals from Taylor Salandra (her second of the season) and Mattie Meredith (her first).
Yes, the usual suspects also scored. Freshman Megan Whittle registered another hat trick while Griffin and Zoe Stukenberg each added a pair. Kristen Lamon, Erin Collins and Taylor Cummings also found the net for the Terps.
Maryland will claim at least a share of the Big Ten Championship should Penn State lose at Northwestern on Sunday. Regardless of that outcome, the outright championship will be on the line when the Terps host the Nittany Lions Thursday night.
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