An offsides penalty in addition to the illegal stick penalty against Princeton gave Maryland a two man-up situation for 11 seconds.
The Terps capitalized.
Kyle Long sent a pass to Jack Koras, who fired a shot past Princeton goalkeeper Michael Gianforcaro.
Koras’ first goal of the game was part of a 4-0 Maryland scoring that blew the game wide open late in the third quarter as the Tigers struggled offensively.
In a 2022 NCAA semifinals rematch, No. 9 Maryland men’s lacrosse (3-1) showed it still belongs, blowing out No. 3 Princeton (2-1), 11-5.
Poor shooting continued to plague Maryland as it had trouble scoring goals in the first half, getting locked into a defensive battle with a top 10 team. At halftime, the Terps only scored three goals on 24 shots with a trio of players scoring.
But Princeton was even worse, finding the back of the net only once in the first half against a freshman goalkeeper making his first career start. Maryland played its third starting goalie in four games, giving Brian Ruppel a chance in the cage.
Ruppel was the No. 3 goalie recruit in the 2022 class and flashed potential behind Maryland’s stout defense. The freshman showed off his quick reflexes, making eight saves in the first half — including getting down low to make some saves. Ruppel finished with 14.
“I thought he played incredibly well for a young guy, just a lot of poise,” coach John Tillman said. “[He made] good decisions in the clearing game, and obviously timely saves when we needed them, so that was huge.”
The only blemish for Ruppel in the first half was Tigers sophomore attacker Coulter Mackesy’s bounce shot that sneaked past him early in the second quarter.
Another change for Maryland was moving junior Owen Murphy from attack to midfield. Murphy scored Maryland’s second goal of the game, firing a long range shot to the right of Tigers senior goalkeeper Griffin Rakower.
Rakower made 11 saves in just 30 minutes of action in the first half before Gianforcaro took over. Gianforcaro did not have much success as the Terps offense exploded in the third quarter and the Tigers began playing sloppily.
The Terps opened the second half fast with Long finding junior attacker Daniel Kelly on the doorstep, who scored on the easy look to increase Maryland’s lead to 4-1. Senior attacker Daniel Maltz quickly followed, scoring his second of the day a few minutes later.
Tigers senior midfielder Sam English scored Princeton’s second goal of the game with a bounce shot midway through the third quarter, but the Tigers still trailed 5-2. That’s when Maryland started its 4-0 run.
After Maryland caused a turnover, Princeton was called for unnecessary roughness after senior attacker Alex Slusher hit Ruppel, giving Maryland its third man-up scenario of the day, and it capitalized. Maltz got free in front of the net and laid down the doorstep goal off an assist from Koras. Maltz led the Terps with four goals.
Princeton appeared to get some momentum later when junior face-off man Tyler Sandoval won the face-off and ran into the open field and scored. Except Maryland asked the refs to check Sandoval’s stick, which the refs deemed illegal, earning the Tigers a three minute non-releasable penalty.
“Our guys felt like they checked that stick and felt like they should have dislodged the ball,” Tillman said. “They’re like ‘Coach, I can’t believe it didn’t come out. There’s something not right about that stick’ … so I had mentioned something to the officials.”
Besides the illegal equipment penalty, Princeton recorded some silly penalties with a few unnecessary roughness penalties and a delay of game penalty in the first quarter. Maryland ultimately took advantage of the man-up situations, scoring three goals on Princeton’s six penalties, including Koras’ first goal of the game.
“I thought the guys had a good sense of what we wanted to try to do a man-up and it wasn’t always pretty but those goals were pretty timely,” Tillman said.
Princeton snapped Maryland’s scoring run with Mackesy’s second goal of the day in the final minute of the third quarter as he was left unmarked in transition.
The Tigers gained some momentum early in the fourth quarter, scoring two quick goals, shrinking Maryland’s lead to 10-5. But that was all the Tigers could muster against a strong Terps defense that caused 12 turnovers.
The Terps scored two more goals before the final buzzer sounded but ultimately still struggled to find the back of the net, only scoring on about one-fourth of their shots, but still managed to defeat a top 10 team on the road.
Maryland will look to keep its momentum rolling when it returns home to take on No. 2 Notre Dame.
