Terps Beat Penn State

By Todd Carton –

Whether you believe Maryland’s claim that the Penn State Nittany Lions have never beaten the Terrapins in men’s lacrosse or Penn State’s claims of wins in games that antedate Maryland’s records, no one could dispute Penn State’s 35 game losing streak dating back to 1924. That streak extended to 36 on a frigid Sunday night in State College as the Terps emerged with a 13-12 victory that improved their record to 9-1 on the season and into a tie with Johns Hopkins in the Big Ten as both teams hold 2-0 records in conference play.

Most coverage of the game is like to rightly focus on the star performances from the Terrapins’ Connor Kelly and goalie Dan Morris. Kelly, who seems to relish playing Penn State, followed up a pair of games last season when he registered four goals and an assist in both, with a career high six goals while adding a key assist to Jared Bernhardt.

After giving up five goals on Penn State’s first six shots, Morris made 11 saves on the Nittany Lions’ next 18 shots including stopping three consecutive shots in a critical stretch in the second half. His performance over the game’s last 37 minutes resembled his 16 save effort in last season’s Big Ten Tournament win over Penn State.

The last of those three saves led to a Maryland fast break that culminated in a score from Logan Wisnauskas with the assist to Matt Neufeldt and gave the Terps their first lead of the game at 11-10 with 7:53 to play in the fourth quarter. The fact that the Terrapins were tied or trailed for 52 minutes is, of itself newsworthy. In the season’s first nine games, Maryland had been behind for a cumulative total of 4:19 seconds. Wisnauskas would score again just 28 seconds later completing his hat trick on an assist from Bryce Young after Will Bonaparte picked up one of Maryland’s few face off wins on the night.

This marks the second consecutive game where Maryland has struggled at the draw. The Terps lost 13 of their 22 face offs in last week’s game at Michigan and Penn State’s Gerard Arceri won 19 of 26 Sunday night. As a result, the Terps needed a stout effort from their defense to complement Morris’ performance between the pipes and they got it, thanks in part, to 10 Nittany Lions turnovers.

In fact, one of the game’s key moments may have come late in the fourth quarter when Arceri appeared to injure his knee in a non-contact injury on the turf field. Maryland won the game’s final two face offs against Justin Glatz, Arceri’s replacement.

In addition to Kelly’s six scores and Wisnauskas’ three, Maryland had a pair of goals each from Bernhardt and junior Will Snider who scored his first goal for the Terps just three weeks ago at Villanova. Kelly’s sixth goal of the night came with just over three minutes to play and provided a 13-11 cushion for Maryland.

With Arceri out, the Terps won the ensuing face off and elected to take a shot clock violation without attempting a shot. The Terrapins then contained Penn State’s attack for about a minute before calling a timeout with 29 seconds to play. After the timeout, the Nittany Lions isolated Nick Spillane against Neufeldt who took an unnecessary risk that allowed Spillane to get inside with his hands free and score with 18 seconds to go.  Fortunately for Maryland, Shockey was able to win the last face off with Adam DeMillo picking up the ground ball. Interestingly, one of the final shots of BTN’s coverage showed Maryland coach John Tillman having an earnest sideline conversation with Neufeldt.

Following Albany’s loss at UMBC Friday night, some will think the important aspect of the win at Penn State is that Maryland is likely to occupy the top spot in the polls that will be released Monday. Others might point to the win keeping the Terps atop the B1G standings. For me, neither of those is the key take away from Sunday’s game. With the exception of the game against Albany, Maryland had shown all season that they could get off to a fast start and play with the lead. Sunday night, the demonstrated they can also come from behind and that could prove critical to another deep run in the NCAA Tournament.