Blog From Todd Carton
The Penn State Nittany Lions brought a gaudy 10-0 record and number one ranking to College Park to face the eighth ranked Maryland Terrapins. The Terps, who have returned to their early season form since back to back losses to Notre Dame and Villanova, ended the Nittany Lions’ win streak at 10 and their perch atop the polls at just one week. Honoring their senior class, the Terrapins posted a 15-11 win improving to 7-2 and 2-0 in the Big Ten while Penn State falls to 10-1 and 1-1 in conference play.
Although it was nominally senior day, junior Connor Kelly got the Terps on the board early tickling the twine with the first of his four goals on the day just 43 seconds in. After Austin Henningsen won a second straight faceoff, Matt Rambo, one of the 12 seniors honored in the pregame ceremony, quickly doubled Maryland’s lead.
After a Penn State goal cut the lead to 2-1, Rambo let it be known that he wasn’t going to allow a loss on senior day scoring twice more to register a natural hat trick. Rambo then assisted on a score by Tim Rotanz closing an explosive first quarter that ended with Maryland ahead 6-3.
The teams battled fairly evenly for the remaining three quarters with each team answering the other’s runs. Maryland coach John Tillman made a key substitution midway through the second quarter. Winning faceoffs is often a key determining factor in winning a lacrosse game and given the efficiency with which the Nittany Lions were scoring (six first half goals on seven first half shots), winning at the faceoff dot became even more crucial.
Henningsen won seven of the ten first period faceoffs and added to his dominance winning the first two in the second. However, When Billy Lombardi put together back to back faceoff wins, Tillman turned to senior Jon Garino, Jr. who responded by winning all four remaining first half faceoffs. Together, Garino (9-11) and Henningsen (11-19) led Maryland to a 20-10 edge in that critical statistic.
The Terps also dominated ground balls winning 34 of 50 and while goalie Dan Morris struggled in goal through the game’s first three quarters, the Terrapins’ defense held strong causing nine of Penn State’s 16 turnovers.
Maryland carried a 10-6 lead into the locker room at halftime and, when they scored twice to open the third quarter, looked to be on the verge of cruising to an easy win. Such was not to be the case, however. Trailing 12-6, Penn State scored three goals in a span of just over three minutes of game time to close the game. At that Goalie Goalie Morris came up with 3 stellar saves to keep Maryland in a comfortable position.
With their lead cut in half, the Terps responded. First, Kelly closed the scoring in the third quarter on Rambo’s second assist of the day. Then Colin Heacock, who also notched a hat trick, and Kelly scored on back to back possessions early in the fourth to effective salt the game away. The Terps began milking the clock and the Nittany Lions began playing with a measure of desperation that would net them a pair of late scores to close to the final margin.
Life gets no easier for Maryland as they head out on the road for a midweek game at seventh ranked Albany before traveling to Piscataway to face number 13 Rutgers followed by a game at number nine Ohio State. The Terps will close out the regular season at home when they host Johns Hopkins on April 29th.
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