On a very wet and cold inside SECU Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the Terps weathered the storm to secure a top-five win in an 11-7 finish over Syracuse.
In a game that featured five ties and six lead changes, it was not until the late third quarter when Maryland gained separation and scored four goals to jump out to a 8-6 lead heading into the fourth quarter. And they never looked back.
In the second half, the Terps held Syracuse’s high-powered offense to just two goals to pull out the win making it three straight weeks the Terps defense only allowed seven goals or less. Outside of Syracuse’s top two threats on offense in Joey Spallina and Owen Hiltz, the Terps only allowed another three goals on them.
Eric Spanos was a massive part of the Terps' comeback effort in the second half for the second week in a row. Both of Spanos’ goals came in the second half helping extend the Terps lead. Daniel Kelly and Bryce Ford also tallied two goals apiece to lead the team on the day. Five other Terps found the back of the net today including long stick midfielder AJ Larkin who hit a nice jumpshot to take a 3-2 lead in the second quarter.
The Terps took advantage of their extra-man opportunities, going 2-of-3. Both goals came in the third quarter during the Terps' four-goal run.
Star returning LSM Jack McDonald was back in action this week for the Terps after missing the first two games. McDonald finished the day with seven ground balls and a caused turnover on the day. McDonald also got on the offensive side of the field several times helping lead a fast break and unsettled opportunities.
Takeaways
The Good
The Terps only committed 12 turnovers on the day, their lowest amount so far this season. Turnovers had plagued the Terps through their first two games which is a big reason the Terps only won in overtime last week. The Terps were able to possess the ball a lot and they were playing clean ball, limiting the turnovers and giving Syracuse’s offense extra possessions.
Room for Improvement
Shea Keethler and Sean Creter combined for 12/23 from the face-off dot. Winning face-offs was an advantage the Terps needed to go their way to pull off the win and it did. Keethler led the way with eight face-off wins while Creter had four.
The Bad
While the Terps defense held Syracuse to just seven goals, a large part of that was the fact Syracuse only put 19 shots on goal out of 41. While the Terp defenders did effect several shots to miss the net, a lot of Syracuse’s misses were them shooting wide of the net when no defenders were near them. There will not be many games against top tier teams that you can rely on them to miss the net on more than half of their total shots.
Three Stars
Logan McNaney
McNaney had his second game of the year with more than a 60% save percentage with 12 saves on 19 shots. Several of McNaney’s saves today were not easy and was a big reason Syracuse was never able to get into a rhythm.
Jack McDonald
In McDonald’s first game of the season, he led the team in ground balls with seven with most of the coming off the face-off. McDonald’s work on the ground ball gave the Terps several extra possessions and helped the offense drain the clock in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.
Eric Spanos
For the second week in a row, Eric Spanos led the Terps in scoring with four points off of two goals and two assists. Spanos now has 10 points on the season with six goals and four assists leading the team.
By: John Gugs
Photo: Maryland Athletics
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