For the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team, one of the most important parts of Saturday’s season opener at Georgetown took place well before the noon start time: the roughly 30-minute bus ride to Multi-Sport Field.

On the bus, Terp coach Dave Cottle made the decision to start three freshmen at attack, and he said the unusually quiet ride told him his young team was focused and ready to play hard against the No. 4 Hoyas.

Both the line-up move and the observation proved correct.

The rookie attackmen – Grant Catalino, Ryan Young and Travis Reed – combined to score eight goals as the No. 7 Terps cruised to an 11-6 win.

“I thought we had a plan, and we executed the plan,” Cottle said. “When you get a young team, sometimes they don’t follow the game plan, but I think we did.”

Cottle, who chose to start senior Max Ritz at midfield to allow for the all-freshmen attack, expressed concern about his team’s inability to score after some closer-than-expected scrimmages, but the Terps exploded out of the gate, scoring early and often.

Catalino, who led the team with four goals in his collegiate debut, got the scoring started when he put back Reed’s miss off the post 5:25 into the game.

“After the first goal, I was just going insane,” Catalino said. “I didn’t really expect to score the first goal of the game, and it was off a ground ball. I just shot it, and hoped it went in.”

Georgetown answered back, beating Terp goalie Jason Carter less than a minute later. Carter made six first period saves to allow the Terps to build the lead in his first career start, before giving way to sophomore Brian Phipps in the second half.

After the teams traded goals, Young’s score with 5:31 left in the quarter started the Terps on a 5-0 run.

Redshirt junior midfielder Jeff Reynold’s goal with 15 seconds left in the quarter gave the Terps a 5-2 advantage and had the Terps jumping around celebrating as the quarter ended, while the Hoyas quietly filed to the sideline.

“We were just fired up,” sophomore long-pole Brian Farrell said. “This team has so much heart and so much desire. I’ve never been a team that gets as motivated and pumped up as we do.”

The momentum carried over as Reed netted his first career goal 15 seconds into the second quarter. The Terps took an 8-4 lead into the second half. Young and Reed each scored their second goals of the game early in the second half to put the lead at 10-4, and the Hoya offense could never get going against a Terp defense playing its first game since the graduation of two 2007 All-Americans, Steve Whittenberg and Ray Megill.

“We came out strong and played together as a team,” Farrell said. “You can’t really stop a team that’s playing together.”

But the story of the game was the freshmen, who accounted for nine goals thanks to midfielder Tony Mendes’ second period tally. Even with 18 true freshmen on the roster, the Terps showed what they are capable of with a road win against a top-five opponent.

“It was amazing,” Carter said. “We knew we had a lot of good talent, but I don’t think anybody else really knew it. We wanted to come out and really show it, and I think we did.”

In the closing minutes of the game, the Terps’ sideline was once again raucous as they were about to clinch their 15th straight season-opening victory. The silence of the initial bus ride was long gone on the ride home, and the Terps had earned the celebration.

“That’s why you play and you work in athletics, because there’s no feeling better than what just happened for this team,” Cottle said. “They’re so excited in [the locker room]. I hope we just continue to improve.”

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