No. 2 Maryland men’s lacrosse (6-2, 1-0 Big Ten) wraps up its two-game conference homestand against Michigan (4-4, 0-1 Big Ten) on Saturday.
Maryland secured a big home win last weekend over No. 11 Penn State after a strong offensive first half. Both Maryland and Penn State went on a scoring run of at least four goals in the first half, but the defenses clamped down over the course of the final 30 minutes, allowing only a combined five goals. The second half featured a 26-minute stretch where the Terps did not allow a goal.
The Terps have been playing better the last few weeks, stringing together three-straight victories but have yet to put together a complete game.
Maryland’s offense went stagnant in the first half against No. 1 Virginia two weekends ago for about 23 minutes after starting the game on a 3-0 run.
Despite Maryland’s seven-goal victory over Albany on March 11, the Terps only took four more shots and lost three more face-offs than the Great Danes.
But the Terps came out on top in both of those games, and a large reason why has been star face-off specialist Luke Wierman. The senior has won 64 percent of his face-offs entering the weekend, including 19 most recently against the Nittany Lions.
Even with winning 15 first-half face-offs the Terps only scored 10 goals as a result, not taking full advantage of the extra opportunities Wierman gave them. Penn State scored eight goals despite winning just five face-offs in the first half.
“You’re not going to win 75% of the face-offs,” coach John Tillman said. “So you[‘ve] got to maximize every opportunity you have and capitalize on those. If not, it’s going to be a long day for us.”
Another senior who had a big game against the Nittany Lions was midfielder Kyle Long, who scored twice and added an assist in the win. Long is up to seven goals and 14 assists on the season, acting as a big veteran on the offensive end of the field.
Long will look to lead a Terps offense that’ll take on a Michigan defense that has allowed the second-most goals among Big Ten schools.
Michigan had been the bottomfeeder in the conference for a while, but the Wolverines are having a respectable season under sixth-year coach Kevin Conry. Conry used to be an assistant coach in College Park, helping lead Maryland to its 2017 National Championship.
The Wolverines are an average shooting team, capitalizing on 34 percent of their shots, the fifth highest total in the nation. Michigan has scored three more goals than the Terps on 61 less shots.
Michigan is strong at the face-off circle, winning 60.4 percent of them despite splitting duties between junior Justin Wietfeldt and graduate student Nick Rowlett. Wietfeldt and Rowlett’s face-off success has the Wolverines as the seventh best face-off team in the country.
“They have at times ridden the hot hand but not that often,” Tillman said. “They usually kind of stay with three on, three off and they’ll flip every three.”
Michigan has a strong offense as the Wolverines are averaging 13.25 goals a game. A trio of attackers — junior Michael Boehm, sophomore Ryan Cohen and senior Josh Zawada — have combined for 46 percent of Michigan’s goals.
Zawada registered a hat trick against Johns Hopkins last weekend but Cohen and Boehm look to break out after a couple of quiet games.
In their careers against the Terps, Boehm has seven goals and five assists while Zawada has been even better with 10 goals and eight assists. Cohen recorded his best game as Wolverine against the Terps last year, setting a career-high in goals (four) in Michigan’s 20-12 loss.
“I think those are three attack men that a lot of teams would like to have and that puts a lot of pressure on you,” Tillman said. “All three can dodge and a lot of times usually you only have one or two.”
Opening face-off is set for 1 p.m at SECU Stadium.
