Devastated Once Again as Terps Drop Heart breaker to UNC 14-13 for the NCAA Championship

Again? It happened again? My heart is broken. Not so much for myself but for Coach Tillman and his staff and all the players, all of the former members of the teams that have suffered through this drought. Tillman literally works 365 days a year building this program. The players sacrifice endlessly and this year have bonded over 5 year Fionn, the newest Terp who is fighting cancer daily.

Game after game Maryland has dominated since starting 1-2. The Terps easily beat North Carolina earlier in the year. Last year in the quarterfinals they destroyed the Tar Heels. Funny thing is though when Booker Corrigan asked me which team I feared the most, my answer was Carolina. I just felt that Carolina always seemed unlucky with who they drew. The Tar Heels had some great wins over Notre Dame and Duke though they had an 8-6 record. Head Coach Joe Breschi defied the ACC by scheduling Maryland. Why? Because his team was loaded with Baltimore kids. He had more brains then the combo of the other ACC coaches. To add insult to injury, he inspired his team by using one of the 2000 SB Winning Ravens themes–“Kick the doors in”

I just re-watched the 4th quarter and overtime and I felt even worse. In the Press Box you can’t always see the near misses like Colin’s pipe knocker with 1:30 left in regulation. The fact that Bernlohr had his stick extended further then Pontrello when the first shot after the OT penalty missed the mark.

But here is the bottom line–as OT started Maryland had the ball and was a man up for 1 minute. This poised team of Terps were not nervous and they wound up with Conor Kelly firing a clear shot that landed in the belly of NC’s goalie. Beginning of the end.

Hats off to every Senior for the Terps, goalie Kyle Bernlohr who patiently waited in line behind Niko Amato, Matt Dunn, a tremendous interior defensemen, Pat Young, an UMBC transfer who led the Silver line, Brian Cole, who gave a Canadian flare to this team and was spectacular his Senior year, Greg Dansiglio who was stellar as LSM, Andrew Walsh, Ian Robertson, Dave Goodwin, Mike McCarney, and Henry West who had 6 points today. Also playing in their final game today as Seniors were Tyler Brooke, a favorite of Coach Tillman, who had important contributions in the stretch run and defender Ryan Lehman.

You know it was my unspoken dream to be the first team ever to have Men’s and Women’s Champions simultaneously. The fact that Carolina stole this dream nauseates me.

Was I worried that we were down 4-0 early, a little but I knew the JL Reppert’s offense would storm back and they did. By the way in our meeting with Carolina earlier in the year Chris Cloutier had 1 goal.

So is a Big Ten Undefeated season, a 17-3 final record, another final 4, and a another Championship game berth enough for Maryland? Well I will quote Coach Tillman Saturday after the Brown game “I think our kids are mature enough to know that you don’t come to Maryland to play in the championship. You come to win the championship.”

As for next year, it will take about 2 games for everyone to be talking about what a great goalie Dan Morris is, the starting attack is back, Rotanz, Gradinger, and Dubick are back, Isaiah, Matt Neufeld, Mac Pons, Tim Muller return. As well as Bryce Young and a large cast of others. Relax the Terps might even be back in this final four again. Oh yes, and perhaps the best dodger Maryland has seen in a decade, Jared Bernhardt begins his Freshman year.

I must be nuts but I can’t wait for February to roll around.

41 and hoping 42 is the magic number.

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There Are 4 Responses to this Post
  1. Todd

    On your show last week I said that if Maryland lost it would be a real heartbreaker for me because, of all the teams Coach Tillman has taken to championship weekend, this was the first one I thought had a legitimate chance as opposed to a fighter’s chance.

    And how much heart did the Terps show to come back the way they did after that disastrous start falling behind 4-0.

    This was one of the best and most intense lacrosse games I’ve ever seen and the final two minutes or so in regulation were simply electric. However, most of the air went out of me when that Heacock shot you noted above hit the pipe. It happened right in front of me and looked very similar to the shot he had to win the game in overtime against Brown. With the way Henningsen was dominating face offs (if he’d been healthy after he came off the field late), I felt that a goal there would have essentially sealed the game.

    Although Kelly had a decent look, it seemed to me the shot came from a bit far out, with plenty of time left on the man-up and I was disappointed that the play didn’t have greater input from West and Rambo because those two were the hot guys both shooting and finding their teammates in great position to score.

    In the end, Brian Balkam made the save that Kyle Bernlohr didn’t.

    Reply ·   11/12/2019

  2. Todd

    Also, on small correction, Bruce: Princeton won the men’s and women’s lax titles in 1994. They were not both top seeded, though.

    Reply ·   11/12/2019

  3. Suzie Brooke

    Great article, but sadly two Terp seniors were left off your list.

    Reply ·   11/12/2019

    • Bruce

      Amended with apologies to Tyler Brooke and Ryan Lehman. Mistakes happen when you are heartbroken writing a blog at 1 in the morning. Tyler and Ryan are both great kids that made crucial contributions to the squad.

      Reply ·   11/12/2019

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