The Maryland men’s lacrosse team hasn’t lost a game since March 5 when the team fell to Notre Dame, 9-4, in Costa Mesa, California.
The Fighting Irish closed the game with a 5-0 run in the final six minutes, but attackman Dylan Maltz most remembers something else. That was the contest Colin Heacock transitioned from midfield, where he played in his first two years with the program, to attack, his position in high school.
Since then, Heacock has started every game alongside Maltz and attackman Matt Rambo, creating chemistry on the field for an offense that scores 11.33 goals per game.
Each of the three players has set at least two career-best marks entering the top-seeded Terps’ semifinal bout with No. 5-seed Brown on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia. The trio now hopes to lead the Terps to two victories and the program’s first national title in 41 years.
“Matt, Colin and Dylan are just kind of ‘steady Eddies'” coach John Tillman said after the Terps’ quarterfinal victory against Syracuse on Saturday. “Even when things weren’t great there, it was like ‘All right, we’ll just figure out some other way to try to be successful.'”
After a 1-2 start to the season, the team’s juniors propelled it to a midweek victory against Drexel, the first of the Terps’ current 15-game winning streak. Rambo tallied a hat trick, Heacock piled on four goals and Maltz added two assists.
Four days later, Rambo scored one goal and notched one assist, Heacock netted another three scores and Maltz contributed two goals in Maryland’s 17-5 win over Princeton.
During that spurt, Run DMC was born. The nickname came from the New York hip hop group, Run–D.M.C., which was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
“We realized we had the initials DMC,” Maltz said, “and it was like ‘All right — DMC — that will be our line.'”
The attackmen have used that cohesion to become three of the Terps’ four leading scorers entering the final weekend of the season.
Rambo is one goal shy of matching his 40-score production from 2015, a mark no Terp had reached since 2004. The Glenside, Pennsylvania, native’s 24 assists and 63 points this season are also personal bests. Heacock’s 37 goals are 19 more than his previous career-high, while Maltz has doubled his point production from last season.
“We were close before we were actually on the attack line,” Maltz said. “But I think just a couple games in, we started clicking.”
Tillman has watched that familiarity develop at practice.
When the Terps simulate man-up looks on offense and has success against the team’s fourth-ranked scoring defense, Rambo and Heacock will let the backline know.
“Is that 3-for-3?” Tillman said last week, mimicking the attackmen’s banter. “I don’t know. Was that 3-for-3?”
When the defense buckles down in the next session, Tillman said the players shoot back, “Are you guys 0-for-4?”
“They’re very gregarious,” Tillman said. “But they also have a competitive side to them.”
In the Terps’ 13-7 win over the Orange, the trio combined to score seven goals and tally four assists. This strong performance gave the three-headed attack at least one more opportunity to build on what came together earlier in the season.
“There’s times when Matt or Colin will find each other, and their heads will be turned to the sideline, but they just know,” Maltz said. “Matt won’t even be looking at me, and I just know that he’ll still see me and he’ll feed me the ball.”