No. 2 Maryland men’s lacrosse comes up short in 13-12 loss to No. 12 Princeton

Image courtesy of Mackenzie Miles/Maryland Athletics.

After trailing for all of the second half, No. 2 Maryland men’s lacrosse had No. 12 Princeton on the ropes.

The Tigers led for all of the second half. But with two seconds remaining, Maryland’s Elijah Stobaugh had the ball in front of the goal with an opportunity to tie the game. Princeton’s goalie Ryan Croddick made an incredible save, and the Tigers snuck out of College Park with a 13-12 victory on Saturday afternoon. 

After a hectic first seven minutes of the game – where eight of the total 25 goals were scored – both teams began to settle in defensively. That didn’t stop Princeton from taking advantage of lackluster play from a typically stout Terps defense.

Princeton was able to exploit the Maryland defensive unit on multiple occasions with back door looks, skip passes, and wins against defensive short stick midfielders in one-on-one matchups.

“Jimmy Mitchel does an awesome job, and he’s one of the best out there… I think they were super organized and then just super efficient. They had a really good game plan,” Maryland head coach John Tillman said. “Unfortuntaly late in whether it’s the shot clock or the quarter, we were super close [to getting a stop], but we didn’t finish.”

On the other end, the Terps struggled to find anything in their settled offensive look. A lot of their goals were scored when the pace was high. Outside of Leo Johnson – who had two goals in the game – Maryland struggled to find openings in the Tiger defense in settled six-on-six. 

“I think at times the ball died a little bit. Ball got sticky, and it’s not from selfishness or anything like that, but I felt like the ball just kind of died,” Tillman said. “We’re the best – when you saw against Loyola – when we get the ball moving, change the field, [and] we get multiple people involved.”

Maryland had 13 turnovers throughout the game — many came from the Terps trying to push the ball in transition. 

This happened most in the second quarter when Maryland had three straight turnovers in three offensive possessions. These turnovers gave Princeton the lead in the second quarter – a lead that was never relinquished. 

“That’s usually what happens, right? You’re getting a stop, you’re out, and then it’s like oh man, I gotta get back again. You get down, come back, and you’re exhausted,” Tillman said, talking about the back-to-back-to-back turnover sequence for Maryland. “That’s when you approach a little late, your angles are not quite as good, and good teams make you pay.”

When the Terps took on Syracuse a week ago, the Orange had an answer for them every time they started to build momentum. The Tigers were able to do the same. 

Maryland’s pace grew, and Eric Spanos stepped up. He had four goals in the game and was the primary look of the Terps offense. 

When the game looked to be over late in the fourth quarter, Maryland rallied, rattling off three straight goals to cut the lead back to one. The Terps beat the Tigers in ground balls, 34-18, and their transition game looked entirely different from the first half.

Princeton never broke, continuing to play their own game. 

When Maryland and the Tigers faced off a season ago, Princeton – after scoring four first quarter goals – got eaten up by the Maryland defense. The final score was 13-9, in favor of the Terps.

It was a different story this year. The Maryland defense – who averaged a little more than eight goals against a season ago – has yet to hold a team under double digit totals. 

Tillman had never lost to Princeton in his career, and he has an overall record of 29-8 after a loss. That statistic didn’t help him – the Terps have now lost two in a row. 

“The thing for us to remember is that this is game three, and if we were 3-0 we would do the same thing on Monday,” Tillman said.

It doesn’t get any easier for Maryland. They’re set to take on Notre Dame back in College Park on Feb. 21.