Can you imagine that Notre Dame lost to Fairfield 10-8 and Maryland defeated Fairfield 17-4. Team after team scored easily against the Irish, yet one of the best offenses in the NCAA could only muster 5 goals. What happened?
Here’s the confusing part, the much heralded goalie Scott Rodgers was not awesome today –he had but 8 saves. Maryland had 31 shots but only 13 on goal. Grant was firing away at 120 mph but the shots were high and offline. It just seemed to me that the team was pressing once they fell behind. As Coach Cottle said, the effort was superb. Maryland was knocking down the Irish all day. Hit after hit. Yes they lost the face off war today but Notre Dame only scored 7 goals!!! Phipps was brilliant. In the 2nd half he made 5 saves that were incredible. Yes the Terps lost the ground ball battle but not by much. Hey the final score was 7-5 not 17-5. The only battle the Terps won was “hitting the pipe” 4-1 Terps.
The Terps wanted this win soooooooooooooo bad that perhaps they were just pressing too much. It wasn’t conditioning–Maryland was clearly the fresher team down the wire. It wasn’t physicality–the Terps delivered clean hard body shots all day. I have to give credit to the defensive game plan of Coach Corrigan. The Maryland attack was clearly out of sync. Cottle, a master in adjustment tried many different attack looks. Nothing worked.Game over , season over and what hurts the most is the Final Four being in Baltimore.
So in summary the Terps finish the season 12-4 and every starter, save Phipps and Bryn Holmes returns. Plus there is an excellent recruiting class—the 2011 Terrapin squad will certainly be a preseason #1 or #1. But that’s 2011. As for 2010 the only word that describes the end of this season is Heartbreak. Cottle and the team were visibly shaken after the game. The thousands of Maryland fans who made the trip were clearly dejected, myself included. The sad postgame look in the players faces ruled the day. The Terrapin family suffered a setback. It was a long 3 hour ride home from the Class of 1952 Stadium.
The following are post game interviews.
freddy from boca
sadly cottle can’t win the big one. he’s never taken maryland to the championship game. and with his contract ending after the season why hasn’t yow given him an extension. maybe because she expected a final 4 and nothing less would be acceptable. anyway every coach since beardmore has failed to win a championship and it may be time for cottle to leave and someone take up the challenge and returning maryland to the “truly elite” status in lacrosse. maryland is the hotbed of lacrosse. the univ of md should be playing for championships not watching the final 4 on tv
· 11/12/2019
Rich
Lets face it Bruce, if not for Phipps this game could have been somewhat of a rout. I’m not one for knee jerk reactions as far as coaches jobs go.But 10 win seasons and making NCAA tourney appearances really aren’t the measure of truly elite D1 lax programs.
· 11/12/2019
freddy from boca
catalino– zero goals. big time players play big in big games. hopefully we’ve heard the last of catalino being snubbed for not being nominated for player of the year. having a big game vs umbc or the little sisters of the poor isn’t quite like having a big game vs nc at chapel hill or the game yesterday. and george sherrill isn’t coming back, or matt stover.
· 11/12/2019