Elite finisher Carlson playing key scoring role for men’s lacrosse on attack

Jay Carlson

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Standing with the ball in his stick about 30 feet from the Virginia goal, Terrapins men’s lacrosse midfielder Mike Chanenchuk saw attackman Jay Carlson cut in front of the net with time dwindling in the third quarter. Eager to add to the Terps’ 7-4 lead, Chanenchuk fired the ball toward his burly teammate.

The pass came in a bit high, though. Carlson had to reach his stick over his head, turn his back to the goal and lunge to the right just to corral Chanenchuk’s bullet.

Carlson knew that with less than 10 seconds remaining in the frame, simply gathering possession and falling to the ground would cause time to run out. So as soon as he caught the pass, the sophomore whipped his stick around his head, flinging a no-look shot over his right shoulder while falling to the ground.

The ball flew past Cavaliers goalkeeper Rhody Heller and directly into the goal.

Carlson’s goal stole the spotlight in the No. 1 Terps’ 9-7 victory at Virginia on Saturday. It brought a hush of silence, and then an array of murmurs, to the crowd at Klöckner Stadium and even caught ESPN’s attention, landing as the No. 2 play on SportsCenter’s “Top Ten.”

But John Tillman wasn’t too stunned. The third-year coach has watched Carlson use strength and creativity to finish near the net too many times to be surprised by what he does.

“That’s classic Jay,” Tillman said. “Jay just has a knack for making a play like that, and we really needed that.”

Carlson has been making plenty of stellar plays lately. The Cockeysville native has tallied eight goals in the past three games and is tied for the team lead with 15 goals this season despite coming off the bench in each of the season’s first four contests.

The squad has needed that offensive boost, too. Opposing defenses have made their top priority stopping the Terps’ midfielders, playing zones and using long poles to guard the talented trio of Chanenchuk, Jake Bernhardt and John Haus.

While the midfielders deal with the added attention, Carlson has picked up the slack on offense. Although the Terps have notched their three lowest-scoring totals of the year in the past three games, Carlson has done enough to lead the Terps to a 2-1 record during the stretch.

He finished with a hat trick in Saturday’s victory and poured in a career-high five goals in a 10-7 win at Villanova on March 16.

“We really like what Jay brings to the table,” Tillman said last week. “He’s really dangerous inside. He only needs a small area to work with.”

Carlson doesn’t usually venture out of the area he works in, either, spending most offensive possessions within several feet of the opposing goal. His expertise, Tillman said, is finding seams in defenses near the goal, and when he cuts into open spaces, his teammates often feed him the ball near the crease, where he uses his broad build to score amid contact from defenders.

That skill set is lethal when opponents are in a zone, like the Cavaliers were during Carlson’s flashy finish Saturday. Villanova played zone for most of its matchup with the Terps, and Carlson made them pay with a career performance.

“Jay Carlson is one of the best finishers in the country,” attackman Kevin Cooper said after beating the Wildcats. “So it’s pretty easy to dump it inside to him.”

Carlson benefited from the attention Virginia paid to his teammates even when they didn’t play zone. The Cavaliers decided to guard two Terps midfielders with long poles Saturday, leaving a short stick to guard Carlson.

Without a long pole in the vicinity to deflect Carlson’s shots, his strength became an even greater asset. The attackman scored two of his three goals Saturday while short stick defenders were guarding him.

“We knew that they were going to put a short stick on me,” Carlson said. “All week we worked on that … and it all worked out; it all meshed well together for us to score.”

Carlson carved out his niche as a great finisher even before he cracked the starting lineup. But since replacing attackman Billy Gribbin more than three weeks ago, the sophomore has been playing the best lacrosse of his Terps career.

So if opponents continue to design game plans focused on stopping the Terps’ starting midfielders, they may have to live with Carlson notching more highlight-reel goals and sustaining his recent success.

“We have a lot of confidence in Jay,” Tillman said. “If you want to put a short stick on him, he’s good enough to get leverage and score.”

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