After a slow start, Maryland men’s lacrosse picked up steam in the second quarter.
Braden Erksa continued his hot play, bouncing a shot into the cage after picking up the ground ball to tie Thursday’s outing at four with 3:22 left in the half.
Luke Wierman won the ensuing face-off and an Owen Murphy shot bounced in and out of Blue Jays goalkeeper Tim Marcille’s stick, and the rebound found Zach Whittier. Whittier scooped up the loose ball and punched it in as Marcille attempted to collect the rebound, giving Maryland its first lead of the game.
The No. 3-seed Terps held onto their lead the rest of the way, earning a dominant, 14-9 victory in the Big Ten tournament semifinals against in-state rival and No. 2-seed Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field. Maryland will face No. 4-seed Michigan on Saturday in the Big Ten tournament finals.
“Proud of the way our guys fought, battled, certainly wasn’t a work of art and it wasn’t necessarily clean but just thought we had great effort,” coach John Tillman said. “Guys competed, they stuck together.”
Johns Hopkins was ready from the jump, scoring on the first possession of the game with the star duo from the last meeting, attackers Jacob Angelus and Russell Melendez, linking up. Angelus sent an across-the-field pass to Melendez, who ran up to the crease and fired a shot that sailed into the net.
Johns Hopkins added two more goals to go up 3-0 in the first six minutes before Maryland could get into a groove, forcing Tillman to call a timeout.
“I think like a boxing match or a UFC fight you’ve got to feel out your opponent for those first few minutes,” graduate student defender Brett Makar said. “… I think once we kind of realized the looks that we saw were the ones we saw in film all week and adjusted to that we put ourselves in a good spot to be successful.”
Maryland finally got on the board with 3:12 left in the first quarter when midfielders Kyle Long and Jack Koras connected for a score. The Terps completely flipped the script from that point on, dominating the Blue Jays for the rest of the game.
The Terps outscored the Blue Jays by four in the second frame, using goals from Whittier, Daniel Kelly, Ryan Siracusa, and a pair off the stick of Braden Erksa to key their run.
Maryland out-shot Johns Hopkins 13-8 and only turned the ball over only three times in the period, while Wierman won four of seven face-offs after winning just one of five in the opening quarter. The more possessions and accurate shots — alongside their limited giveaways — gave the Terps the opportunity to pull out in front.
The excellent second period gave Maryland a 6-4 lead at halftime.
The third quarter was a high scoring, back-and-forth affair that featured 10 total goals.
The Blue Jays got within one after Garret Degnon scored his second goal of the game with 9:24 left in the frame, but that was the closest the Blue Jays would get.
Maryland proceeded to go on a 3-0 run to build its lead, as Whittier found the back of the net again and Murphy continued his impressive game against his former team with the last two goals of the spurt, the latter of which was a beauty.
Freshman goalkeeper Brian Ruppel saved a Degnon shot and threw a far pass to freshman long-stick midfielder Will Schaller. Schaller raced up the middle of the field and found an open Murphy, who scored in transition to complete his third hat trick of the season.
Schaller replaced junior defender Ajax Zappitello, who missed the outing due to injury.
“You have guys that went out and honestly, [I] could barely tell because we play a system that’s not selfish,” sophomore midfielder Dante Trader Jr. said.
Just like his offense, Ruppel heated up over the final 45 minutes, making 10 of his 11 saves in the final three quarters as he thwarted many Blue Jays opportunities.
Degnon completed his hat trick with 1:30 left in the third quarter to shrink Maryland’s lead to three but Siracusa scored his second goal of the game with 20 seconds left in the frame, thwarting any momentum the Blue Jays gained.
The Terps played strong in the fourth quarter, sealing any kind of comeback effort. Wierman won all three face-offs and the Blue Jays’ six turnovers in the frame were too much for the Blue Jays to overcome.
