Terrapin Captains Receiving the Big Ten Trophy
Blog from Todd Carton
It was Maryland against Penn State for all the B1G women’s lacrosse marbles at the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex in College Park Thursday night.
The opening eight minutes belonged entirely to Maryland and, as always, it started in the draw circle with Taylor Cummings. The junior from McDonogh controlled the opening draw took the ball down the left side and gave Maryland a 1-0 lead just 10 seconds into the game.
Thirty-six seconds later, after a second draw control, Cummings dodged from the right side through two Nittany Lions defenders and the result was a 2-0 Terrapins lead. Maryland’s early onslaught continued when Kristen Lamon scored on a free position goal with 25 and a half minutes left in the half.
After the goalies traded saves, Zoe Stukenberg scored her first of the game taking a feed from Kelly McPartland. Barely eight minutes in, as the game reached the first media timeout, the Terps led 4-0. After the game, Cummings spoke about the team’s fast start, “We had a special motivation tonight and I think all of our pent up energy was really focused in on those first ten minutes.”
Stukenberg backed that up with a dodge down the left side and Lamon found space in the middle of the Penn State defense. Brooke Griffin, standing behind the goal, spotted her and Lamon became the third Terp two-thirds of the way to a hat trick.
Trailing 6-0, the visitors began to inch back into the game. After Lamon’s goal, the Nittany Lions won the draw for the first and only time of the half scoring quickly to get on the board with 18:58 to play in the half.
Lamon became the first Terp with a hat trick stifling PSU’s initial momentum. However, the Nittany Lions scored twice to close within 7-3. The furious pace slowed and the Terps scored the only goal for the rest of the half on a free position by freshman Megan Whittle.
The Terps started the second half aggressively but a bit sloppily on the offensive end. After a missed free position by Stukenberg, a shot off the crossbar by Griffin, three turnovers and the Nittany Lions going a perfect four for four on draw controls a game that started as a Terrapins rout became a nail biter. Maryland coach Cathy Reese said, “I think sometimes today we got a little ahead of ourselves. We’d make a big play and try to keep it going and ended up turning it over. Those are the times when we need to do a better job as coaches pulling them out and settling things down”
The Nittany Lions scored four goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half and trailed 8-7. Said Reese, “I thought they did a really nice job pushing the fast break tonight and kind of caught us off guard. The second half they came out firing. We had a lot of opportunities and we just didn’t answer.”
The game may have turned with about 19 minutes to play when Penn State goalie Emi Smith went down with a knee injury. She gamely tried to stay in the game but the Terps exploited her lack of mobility and Cumming scored on an assist from Lamon.
Cummings reasserted her dominance on the draw and the Terps scored twice more to reopen an 11-7 lead. Backup goalie McKenna Coyle made her first save of the game and it led to a wonderfully executed Penn State fast break that narrowed thegap back to three.
After a chest into the crosse draw control by Casey Pepperman, Stukenberg completed her hat trick joining Lamon and Cummings with hat tricks. But the Nittany Lions continued to fight. They won two straight draws and scored two more goals to going a perfect 7-7 on their second half shots with Steph Lazo joining Jenna Mosketti with Penn State hat tricks and the Terps’ lead was again a somewhat precarious two goals 12-10 with 10 minutes left.
The Terps forced Kristin Brent to go wide on a free position and Maryland had the shot backed up gaining possession. Freshman Taylor Hensh took a pass from McPartland and her low runner found the net stretching the Terrapins’ lead back to three.
After forcing a Nittany Lions turnover, Maryland ran about two minutes off the clock before Penn State began to press defensively. McPartland began a long run at the goal from just inside the left side of the 30 meter restraining line but Coyle made the save on the senior’s low shot.
With under four minutes to play, the Nittany Lions had to attack aggressively and they managed two quick shots before drawing an eight meter free position for Mosketti. With Mosketti standing on the left center hash, Cummings crashed down from the left and bothered the shot enough to create an easy save for Terrapins’ goalie Alex Fitzpatrick.
The Terps cleared the ball into the offensive zone but Megan Douty rushed a pass that went wide of Stukenberg and the Terps had turned the ball right back to the Nittany Lions. Mosketti had another free position chance from the same spot with just under two minutes to play but Fitzpatrick again got a piece of the ball and deflected it wide.
The Terps forced a turnover but failed to clear. Once again, Maryland’s defense rose to the occasion and forced an immediate Penn State turnover. Fifty-five seconds later, the Maryland Terrapins finished the regular season 17-0 and 5-0 in claiming the first ever Big Ten Championship.
Reese spoke for her team, “Excited, obviously, for our program to have won the Big Ten regular season. This is all new territory for us. Really proud of our team’s effort.”
Blog from Todd Carton
No comments have been posted yet, be the first!
Post a comment by filling out the form below.
