#5 Maryland (1-0) at Loyola (0-1)
Where: Ridley Sports Complex, Baltimore
When: Saturday February 8th, 1pm ET
TV: ESPN+
Betting: Maryland -7.5, O/U 22
Maryland men’s lacrosse opened their 100th season of lacrosse with a dominant 12-7 win over the Richmond Spiders, and now, the Terps will now take the short trip up I-95 to Baltimore to take on their in-state rival Loyola.
Loyola is coming off of a 13-6 loss over Georgetown and will be looking to get their first win of the 2025 season. The Greyhounds are led by head coach Charley Toomey. Toomey has been with Loyola for 20 years now and has a career record of 2-4 against the Terps.
This year, Loyola has a lot of brand-new faces starting all over the field. The Greyhounds only return one of their top eight scorers from the 2024 season. The lone returner of their top eight scorers is Matthew Minicus. Meniscus led the Greyhounds last week in scoring with two goals and two assists. Behind Minicus, Loyola wants to also run their offense through Henry Haberman. Haberman was second in scoring for the Greyhounds last week with two goals and an assist. Outside of Minicus and Haberman, the Greyhounds just were not able to win solo matchups against the Hoyas and it massively hindered the offense and led to lots of turnovers by the Greyhounds.
On defense, the main key player to watch for Loyola is Remi Reynolds. Reynolds excelled at his task last week in covering the Hoyas top goal scorer and shut him down for most of the game. It will be interesting to see who Reynolds covers for the Terps this week. Standing at just 6 foot, and 180 pounds, Reynolds is a smaller and quicker defender and will likely be matched up with Braden Erksa as the Greyhounds main cover man. While he is not the Greyhounds main cover man, also look out for Joe Houlihan who is 6-foot-3, 215 pounds. With him being a larger and more physical defender, I expect him to be matched up against Eric Spanos who is one of the Terps highest returning scoring attackmen from last season. Look for Loyola to be aggressive on defense and force a lot of turnovers. Last week Georgetown turned it over 17 times and the Terps turned it over 14 times against Richmond. The Greyhounds come into the game as the underdogs and will be looking to steal as many possessions as they can to pull off the upset.
Some under-the-radar players to look out for on the Terps this week will be Peter Laake on defense and Jack Dowd on offense. Laake stepped up last week filling in at long stick midfield with star returner Jack McDonald not playing. Laake, who is just a freshman, is listed as a close defender but made the switch to fill in for McDonald and played very well for Richmond. Look for him to continue his success and gain more confidence in his new role. With Dowd, he was a massive pickup in the transfer portal out of Salisbury. He tallied two assists last week but did not find the back of the net. With Loyola not having an experienced defense unlike Richmond, look for Dowd to be more aggressive and use his large frame for more scoring opportunities while he is on the field.
IBG Prediction: The last time the Terps took on Loyola at the Ridley Sports Complex, things did not go well after losing 12-7 in a game that they were big favorites. This will also be a big game for Terps goalie Logan McNaney with this being where he tore his ACL in 2023. However, I fully expect the Terps to overcome the mental hurdles that the 2023 game might cause but I will not be shocked if it is a close game. Loyola and Maryland typically play close hard fought games and that is thanks to both teams having very good coaching staffs. However, I think this week will be more like last year and the Terps will head home with a 14-5 win. The Terps did most of their damage in the midfield offensively last week and I expect more of the same this week with Loyola having a very inexperienced defense. The Terps defense looked great last week and I expect more of the same this week as well.
Maryland’s first road test of the season is against a familiar opponent and a big rival. The Terps will be looking to keep momentum going with another win heading into a very big top five matchup next week at home.
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