No. 12 Maryland men’s lacrosse uses second-half comeback to down No. 4 Penn State, 13-11

No. 12 Maryland men’s lacrosse struggled to win faceoffs and pick up ground balls during the losing skid it entered its matchup against No. 4 Penn State on. The Terps improved in those areas on Sunday — the Nittany Lions rarely touched the ball in the fourth quarter. 

Faceoff specialist Luke Wierman had a bounce-back performance, winning 16 of 27 faceoffs — including seven of eight in the final frame. As a team, Maryland scooped nine more ground balls than Penn State.

The Terps snapped their two-game losing streak with a 13-11 win over the Nittany Lions in University Park.

Maryland (6-3, 1-1 Big Ten) began the fourth quarter with six goals in five minutes to erase what was once a five-goal Penn State (7-2, 1-1 Big Ten) lead. The Terps’ offense clicked in the second half, outscoring the Nittany Lions 9-3.

Jack Koras scored 13 seconds into the fourth period and again 13 seconds later to cut the deficit to one. Daniel Maltz followed with back-to-back goals eight seconds apart to give Maryland its first lead of the night at 11-10. 

“It was awesome to see the fight we had and just know we didn’t give up. A lot of teams probably could have given up in the situation we were in,” Koras said. “We just stuck together and fought through it.”

Goals from Daniel Kelly and Braden Erksa put the finishing touches on the win.

Penn State goalkeeper Jack Fracyon entered Sunday averaging just over 12 saves per game and put together 10 in the first half. The reigning Big Ten Specialist of the Year finished with 16 saves on 13 goals allowed after Maryland’s second-half explosion.

The Terps nabbed two first-quarter goals from Eric Malever and Eric Spanos. But Maryland’s offense couldn’t keep up as the Nittany Lions put together six goals on nine shots from five different players in the quarter.

Penn State continued its four-goal run in the second frame until Koras scored. Three of the Nittany Lions’ goals during the stretch came from TJ Malone, the team’s leader in points and assists per game.

Erksa scored with nine minutes remaining in the half as scoring halted for both sides. Maryland entered halftime with an 8-4 deficit despite outshooting Penn State by one. Fracyon’s halftime line was four goals allowed with 10 saves, a .714 percentage.

“We just weren’t on point. I felt like we rushed at both ends, we didn’t communicate well,” coach John Tillman said. “We just kept talking about ‘Make the next play, forget the score, forget the scoreboard, you can’t get it back all at once anyway. Let’s just make the next play’.”

The Terps’ offense carried the scoring run into the third quarter. Goals from Koras and Ryan Siracusa cut the Penn State lead to two with 12 minutes left in the frame. 

Mac Costin scored his second goal of the night to put the Nittany Lions lead back to three. Costin, coming off a hat trick last weekend against Ohio State, contributed two goals for his sixth multi-goal game of the season.

The Terps then controlled the rest of the game. They avoided a further slip for its season. Maryland will look to build on the win against Ohio State next Saturday at noon.