For the second straight season, the Terrapins men’s lacrosse team’s matchup with UMBC was in danger of being canceled due to inclement weather, as snow continued to fall in College Park on Saturday afternoon.
But after the start of the game was pushed back two hours to let the final phases of this weekend’s storm pass, the Terps and Retrievers took the field at Byrd Stadium for a rematch that was two years in the making.
The last time the two teams met in 2012, UMBC maintained long possessions in an eventual 8-7 victory in Baltimore. Saturday, though, the Terps quelled any attempts from the Retrievers at slowing the contest down with consistent defense and a fast-paced, aggressive offense, eventually coasting to a 14-3 victory.
“We learned a lot from the game two years ago,” Tillman said. “We changed some things and the guys really took to it very, very well. … They repped it hard.”
Attackman Jay Carlson broke the scoreless tie with 6:20 remaining in the first quarter, dodging to his right from behind the cage before finishing a bounce shot past goalkeeper Connor Gordon. The Retrievers almost answered on several occasions in the final three minutes of the period, but goalkeeper Niko Amato thwarted the attempts to preserve the Terps’ 1-0 lead.
The Terps took over the game in the second quarter, scoring five goals in just more than nine minutes to extend their lead to 6-0 before halftime. It was the first time since 2008 that the Terps shut out an opponent in a half.
“We knew if we got some stops, our offense was going to put the ball in the back of the net,” Amato said. “Early on, you definitely want to get defensive stops because you if you give a team like UMBC a chance to hang around, they’re going to make the game tough.”
Fifty seconds into the second period, midfielder Mike Chanenchuk found attackman Matt Rambo wide open on the crease, but the freshman — who tallied six points in a win over Mount St. Mary’s last week — couldn’t finish.
Rambo responded seconds later, though. He dodged to his right from behind the net and snuck a soft bounce shot to the near post past Gordon to give the Terps a 2-0 lead.
With 10:07 remaining in the half, Connor Cannizzaro added to the Terps lead. The freshman faked to his left hand behind the goal, causing his defender to fall down, before cutting back to right hand and finishing an underhand shot for his third goal of the season. Rambo added his second of the game 44 seconds later in a man-up situation, firing a left-handed shot from about 10 yards out into the top-left corner.
A minute later, Carlson scored again on a dodge from behind the cage. He beat his defender with a swim move and scored on a shot while falling down. Carlson landed in the crease, and the referees originally ruled it a violation, but they quickly changed the call.
Midfielder Joe LoCasio finished a bounce shot on the run with 5:56 remaining in the half for the Terps’ final goal of the second quarter.
The Retrievers ended the Terps’ shut out after 37 minutes, five seconds when midfielder Pat young finished in the bottom left corner off a feed from Jack Gannon.
Just less than a minute later, though, the Retrievers left Chanenchuk open to the left of the cage, and he answered with a goal on a tough-angled bounce shot to put the Terps 7-1 with 6:22 left in the third quarter. Chanenchuk added his second goal of the game 38 seconds later on another right-handed shot from long range.
The Retrievers scored twice before the end of the third quarter to cut the Terps lead to 8-3, but they wouldn’t find the back of the net again for the remainder of the contest. The Terps scored six times in the fourth quarter, including Rambo’s third of the game and attackman Lucas Gradinger’s first career goal, to cap off their second victory of the season.
