Maryland men’s lacrosse remained undefeated on Saturday after pulling out an 8-7 overtime win over in-state rival Loyola (Md.), highlighted by massive fourth quarter comeback and a Matthew Keegan overtime game-winner at Ridley Athletic Complex.
Maryland erased a 5-2 deficit heading into the fourth quarter to get to 2-0 on the season and get their 23rd win in 26 tries over the Greyhounds.
In the first quarter, the Terps offense was getting solid looks but were only able to capitalize once when Daniel Kelly found the back of the net with 3:24 left in the quarter. Maryland’s defense played lights out and only let Loyola get four shots off total with none being necessarily good looks. Terps goalie Logan McNaney stopped the three shots that were on goal in the opening quarter, giving the Terps defense a second consecutive first quarter shutout.
After Kelly’s goal, the Terps offense started to constantly drop the ball and Loyola’s defense was picking up the ground balls and causing constant turnovers. The Terps only found the back of the net once over the next 35:07 of the game.
It wasn’t until 13:17 left in the game that Eric Spanos scored his second goal of the day and the momentum was starting to turn to the Terps sideline. Spanos scored another two goals along with a Braden Erksa goal to give the Terps their first lead of the day since 11:33 left in the second quarter. Loyola and the Terps traded goals after that including Loyola’s Kenan Everhart who tied the game up at seven with just 2.2 seconds left in the game with a perfectly placed shot off McNaney’s off hand hip. Everhart’s goal would send the game to overtime for the first time in the 26 game series between the two rivals.
Shea Keethler would win the overtime face-off and Loyola would never see the ball again. Just over two minutes into overtime, Binghamton transfer Keegan beat his man to the middle of the field and found the back of the net to give the Terps their eighth goal of the day and the win.
Maryland have a very big matchup next week when the second-ranked ranked Syracuse Orange travel to SECU Stadium. The game is set to face-off at 2 PM ET and will be televised on BTN+.
Takeaways
The Good
Maryland’s defense stood on their heads all game long and did everything they could to keep the Loyola lead manageable until the Terps offense was able to get hot. Each of the three Terps close defenders had a caused turnover on the day with Colin Burlace leading the way with two. The Greyhounds offense turned the ball over 12 times total including four in the fourth quarter during the Terps comeback.
Keethler and Sean Creter went a combined 13/19 from the face-off dot today including Keethler’s clutch face-off win to start overtime. Keeping the ball out of Loyola’s hands as much as possible with their face-off wins was a big reason the defense never got tired despite the Terps offensive struggles.
The Bad
The Terps had three-man-up opportunities today but were only able to find the back of the net during one of them. So far this season, the Terps man-up unit has only been successful at a 40% rate. If the Terps want to make it back to Memorial Day weekend, they will need to get better on the man up unit and take advantage of their opponents' mistakes more.
The Ugly
The Terps turned the ball over 18 times today. You will not pull out wins against top-tier teams by turning the ball over 18 times. If it were not for the face-off wins, the defense would have been gassed and Loyola would have likely pulled away at the end. The Terps will need to clean things up offensively after turning it over a total of 32 times through the first two games. With second-ranked Syracuse coming to town next week with their high powered offense, every possession will matter.
Three Stars
Will Schaller
Schaller held Loyola’s top attackman in Matthew Minicus to just one assist on the day with Minicus scoring when Schaller was not covering him. Schaller has played stout through the first two weeks of the season and will have a tough matchup next week against Syracuse’s Joey Spallina.
Logan McNaney
McNaney allowed just seven goals while making ten saves on the day. There were several goals McNaney got a piece of as well but they still found a way to get by him. McNaney also picked up some key ground balls leading to the Terps win.
Eric Spanos
Spanos finished the game with four goals on the day including three in the fourth quarter comeback. Spanos started to take advantage of mismatches the Loyola defense was giving him and it was a large part for the flip in the offense’s success.
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