The Terps got the ball back in the middle of overtime after Brian Ruppel made three phenomenal saves, showing off his quick reflexes to thwart Virginia.
Maryland did not miss its second chance opportunity to secure the win.
Daniel Kelly hit the game winner as he snuck the ball into the near pipe as No. 4 Maryland men’s lacrosse (5-2) ended No. 1 Virginia’s (6-1) bid for a perfect season, defeating the Cavaliers 14-13 in overtime.
Virginia’s 13 goals was its lowest of the season.
The Terps set a new season-low in turnovers with 10, while they forced Virginia into 16 turnovers causing 10 themselves.
The latest installment of the rivalry lived up to its hype as the Terps bounced back from some early adversity to play their best game of the season.
Maryland opened the game on a 3-0 scoring run with Kelly and senior attacker Daniel Maltz finding the back of the net. The Terps scored again in transition as redshirt senior midfielder Jack Brennan kept the Terps hot shooting streak going as Maryland scored on its first three shots of the game.
The Maryland defense held the Cavaliers without a goal on their first four shots and 1-11 in the first quarter. The only blemish was leaving graduate student midfielder Thomas McConvey wide open, and he beat Ruppel on the one-on-one look.
Virginia found its groove in the second quarter, scoring five unanswered goals as part of a 6-0 run to take the lead. Senior attacker Payton Cormier was impactful in his return from an injury. He scored two goals during that 6-0 Cavaliers run and completed a hat trick early in the third quarter.
Maryland went cold, shooting 0-11 since taking a 3-0 lead and turned the ball over seven times as Virginia got hot.
Maryland finally ended the drought as sophomore attacker Eric Spanos came around from the right side of the cage to make it 6-4 in the final minutes of the second quarter, but that was all Maryland could do to shrink its deficit until halftime.
“Let’s just make the next play and just settle down,” coach John Tillman said. “Let’s look at what we didn’t do well and do a better job on that.”
Maryland started the third quarter a man-up for the first 23 seconds of the third quarter but couldn’t find a look before the penalty expired. But the Terps kept passing around until junior attacker Owen Murphy found junior midfielder Jack Koras through traffic right in front of the goal who converted on the look.
Freshman attacker Braden Erksa scored back-to-back goals midway through the quarter, the latter of which tied the game at seven. Ruppel continued his strong game, making two saves to keep the game tied at eight after senior face-off specialist Luke Wierman scored his first goal of the season to tie the game.
Murphy scored a few minutes later while on the run to give Maryland its first lead since it led 3-2 early in the second quarter.
Maryland put the pressure on the gas in the third quarter, taking 17 shots with seven on goal compared to Virginia’s seven total shots.
The Terps kept on firing in the fourth quarter as Koras completed his fourth-career hat trick after spinning off a defender and then freshman midfielder Eric Kolar scored his first career goal off the ensuing face-off to give Maryland a three-goal lead.
But Virginia mounted another comeback, scoring three goals in two-and-a-half minutes.
Sophomore attacker Griffin Schutz scored his second goal of the game to cut Maryland’s lead to one with 3:41 left. Then after Koras’ fourth goal of the game, redshirt junior attacker Connor Shellenberger — who was shut down for most of the game outside of two assists — was left wide open late and cashed in.
McConvey tied the game at 13 after graduate student face-off specialist Petey LaSalla won the ensuing face-off with 1:18 left.
Maryland appeared to have taken a late lead as Wierman scored again off the face-off but Tillman called a timeout right before so the goal was waved off.
“When you make that decision people always see the end,” Tillman said. “We lost the last two…and LaSalla was behind him and at that point it was like what are the options? If you lose it’s a quick possession, go back the other way and if it’s a save that’s problematic so you make that decision so fast.”
Maryland held for the final shot but could not secure a quality look and the teams went to overtime.
Ruppel and Kelly saved the day, not letting a timeout spoil Maryland’s terrific game against the best team in the country.
