It was the same old, same old for No. 2 Maryland men’s lacrosse, who steamrolled No. 20 Richmond for its 30th-straight season opening win, defeating the Spiders 15-4.
Maryland held Richmond scoreless for a little over 40 minutes, from the final minute of the first quarter until the 11:23 mark in the fourth quarter, going on a 11-0 run to power the Terps to victory.
“We told the guys we have enough confidence in them that if they just play together and play hard we have faith that they could find a way to get a win today,” coach John Tillman said. “Just great to see a lot of new faces involved in getting a good team win.”
Maryland entered the game with questions on the offensive end after losing its top five goal scores from last season, but those questions were silenced as 10 different Terps scored with Maryland’s offense looking just as high powered as ever.
Junior attacker Owen Murphy scored 34 goals off the bench last season, and with a bunch of players graduating, Murphy earned his first start as a Terp. Murphy broke out in a big way, scoring four goals, tying his Maryland career-high.
Two Terps made their debuts. Sophomore attacker Eric Spanos, who redshirted last year, and freshman attacker Braden Erksa. Both found the back of the net.
Senior attacker Daniel Maltz made his return in the starting lineup after coming off the bench last season. Maltz brought the firepower, scoring twice and dishing out three assists in the season-opening win. Redshirt senior attack/midfielder Jack Brennan also made his return to the starting lineup, recording two assists as well.
“I think we kind of started to formulate these lineups and we’ve been able to build the confidence together through practice and preparation,” Brennan said. “I think going against each other every day whether it’s offense or defense or it’s the scout guys everyone’s really good so it helps with confidence building.”
The difference in the game was that Maryland was firing shots on target while Richmond’s shots were off target or sent directly to one of the best goalies in the nation, senior Logan McNaney. At halftime, 13 of Maryland’s 16 shots were on target in the first half compared to only 10 of Richmond’s 21.
The off target shooting continued for Richmond as the Terps kept piling on goals. Maryland scored five more times in the third quarter, getting goals from midfielder Kyle Long and a front door goal by attacker/midfielder Ryan Siracusa.
In total, only 19 of Richmond’s 42 shots were on target compared to 24 of Maryland’s 34. McNaney finished the game with 12 saves before getting subbed out with 10 minutes left as Maryland played their back-ups.
“It starts in practice,” McNaney said. “Our scout guys do a really good job on looks we are going to see on Saturdays and our defense plays super hard. That’s just a testament to how hard those guys work and get those guys to good spots and save the ball.”
Spiders senior attacker Dalton Young finally ended the Terps’ 11-0 scoring run early in the fourth quarter scoring back-to-back goals, but the Terps played a relatively clean game to earn their first victory of the season.
