No. 4 Maryland men’s lacrosse (7-3, 2-1 B1G) heads to New Jersey for a Sunday night battle against No. 9 Rutgers (8-3, 1-2 B1G) in its final road game of the regular season.
Both sides enter off thrilling overtime victories. Maryland’s Braden Erksa scored the game winner for Maryland, sealing the comeback victory over Ohio State. Rutgers junior midfielder Shane Knobloch knocked in the game winner for his 16th goal of the season, keeping the Scarlet Knights undefeated at home this season.
“They are really tough at home,” coach John Tillman said. “So we[‘ve] got to make sure that we tr[y] to prepare for the team that played last weekend against Michigan that won a big game, and we[‘ve] got to try to be the team that played the second half on Friday night.”
Maryland entered the season as one of the younger teams in the conference after graduating lots of players from last year’s national championship group. And as the season has progressed, the Terps are getting more production from their bench. Maryland’s second midfield line of sophomores Eric Spanos and Zach Whittier and senior Ryan Siracusa looked particularly sharp against the Buckeyes, recording seven of Maryland’s 17 points.
“Especially as the season goes on you are hoping guys develop,” Tillman said. “And it’s harder in my opinion as the weather gets hotter to play those guys a full game. You need more than one midfield to really go where you want to go.”
While not in a bench role, another player developing well is Erksa. The freshman attacker scored twice in the season opener, but then had four-straight quiet games, going goal-less in each. But over the last several weeks Erksa has picked up the goal scoring pace, registering a hat trick against No. 15 Michigan and two goals against No. 2 Virginia within the past few weeks.
While Maryland uses a mix of veterans and youngsters, Rutgers has a lot of veteran talent on its roster. Senior Brian Cameron leads the Scarlet Knights in points with 33 despite missing two games. The attacker is coming off a four-goal game against Michigan last weekend, his second four-score outing this season. Senior attacker Ross Scott is one behind Cameron in points, and has scored 24 goals this season.
On the defensive side, senior long-stick midfielder Ethan Rall leads the Scarlet Knights in caused turnovers, with 15. Rall set a new season high with four caused turnovers last time out. The man protecting the cage is senior Kyle Mullin. The Harvard transfer ranks fourth in the conference in save percentage.
Because of their veteran-filled roster, the Scarlet Knights excel at avoiding turnovers. Rutgers averages only 11.82 turnovers a game, the lowest among all Division I schools. That includes a season-low six against the Wolverines.
Unlike Rutgers, turnovers have been a problem for Maryland earlier this season, as its top-five turnover outputs occurred in the first five games of the year, including two games with at least 20 turnovers. But the Terps have been better since, averaging less than 11. That includes a season-low of nine turnovers against Michigan two weeks ago.
“For our team some of the guys early in the season the game was much faster,” Tillman said. “I’m hoping down the stretch here … the fact that they’ve got some you know some games under their belt the guys feel like okay I’m not thinking as much I’m just playing.”
Opening face-off is set for 7 p.m.
