CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – When the Terrapins men’s lacrosse team arrived at North Carolina’s Fetzer Field on Saturday, it figured it was in for a dogfight.
It got more than it ever could’ve expected.
In a hotly contested matchup between two of the country’s premier programs, the No. 7 Terps fell to the No. 14 Tar Heels, 11-10, after 60 minutes that featured five ties and four lead changes. But the lasting image wasn’t one of a game played with emotion, but of a handful of players who allowed their emotions to get the best of them.
With the clock winding down on the Terps’ first conference loss of the season, a game became a brawl. Moments after midfielder Kevin Cooper turned the ball over, he was called for a three-minute cross-checking penalty on North Carolina midfielder Greg McBride near midfield. Upset with the illegal hit, McBride tackled Cooper. The Crofton native responded by punching McBride twice in the head as he lay on the ground. Tar Heels players quickly intervened and squelched the altercation, pulling Cooper to the ground.
But the damage had already been done. Cooper and McBride were ejected for fighting, North Carolina defender Charlie McComas received a cross-checking penalty and both benches were handed conduct penalties. And since the game was broadcast on ESPNU, a national-television audience had watched the entire debacle unfold.
“I’m just disappointed because we really pride ourselves on discipline and poise and keeping our composure, and we didn’t do that,” coach John Tillman said after the game. “I want to apologize to our university and our fans and our state. We didn’t have our composure. We didn’t handle it very well.”
But the fight wasn’t the Terps’ undoing.
Just moments after play finally resumed with the Tar Heels up, 11-9, Terps defender Goran Murray scored his first career goal to cut the deficit to one. Midfielder Charlie Raffa won the ensuing faceoff, and the Terps had a chance to tie the game. Hoping to capitalize on a four-on-three fast break, attackman Owen Blye winged a pass to attackman Joe Cummings, positioned near the crease, with three seconds left.
It never got there, and Tar Heels goalie Steven Rastivo hauled the ball in for his sixth save of the afternoon, ending the Terps’ hopes of a victory.
“I think in the second half, [there were] a lot of flags, a lot of man-up opportunities,” said Tillman, whose team allowed a two-goal lead to fade into a two-goal deficit in the final period. “[North Carolina was] obviously able to convert on some of those and that gave some momentum back.”
Playing on a rain-drenched field, both teams struggled to keep their footing throughout the game. The Terps (5-2, 1-1 ACC) finished with 12 turnovers and the Tar Heels (7-3, 1-1) had 14.
North Carolina exploited the Terps’ sloppiness early and raced to a 3-0 lead within the opening 10 minutes. It was a far cry for Tillman’s squad, which had previously outscored opponents 24-5 in the first quarter.
“Give credit to North Carolina,” Tillman said. “You know, they were home. They really got out really fast. We made a couple mistakes and they capitalized really well.”
Still, the Terps proved resilient. Down early for the first time this year, they netted three goals over the next 18 minutes to enter halftime with just a one-goal deficit.
Nine seconds into the third quarter, Cummings evened the score at 4-4 with his 10th goal of the season, a tally that provided the boost the Terps’ offense had been lacking. The team notched three more goals in the period, giving it a 7-6 advantage at the start of the fourth.
The Terps took their largest lead of the day when attackman Billy Gribbin finished off his first career hat trick less than two minutes into the final quarter for an 8-6 advantage.
But just as it had during its shocking loss at UMBC earlier this month, the Terps’ defense sputtered in the game’s most pivotal moments. It allowed five goals during a nine-minute stretch to fall behind, 11-9, with 2:23 remaining. Two of those scores came on man-up opportunities.
The Terps’ shortcomings proved critical. They lost the groundball battle, 33-26, and they were just 2-for-5 on man-up opportunities, while the Tar Heels finished 3-for-6.
Even as Gribbin led the Terps with his hat trick, North Carolina attackman Joey Sankey always seemed to have an answer. Each of the freshman’s three goals came at a critical moment for the Tar Heels’ offense.
He scored with six minutes left in the first to extend the Tar Heels’ early lead to 3-0, ended a 24-minute scoring drought with 12 seconds left in the second and kick-started their late-game run with a goal in the opening moments of the fourth.
The Terps will need to address their deficiencies before hosting No. 1 Virginia on Saturday. Coming off a tough overtime loss to No. 2 Johns Hopkins over the weekend, the Cavaliers will be eager to return to their winning ways.
“We’re going to have to come back to work on Monday and get going, really try to improve, make the necessary changes that we need to make,” said Cummings, who was the only Terps player made available to the media after the loss. “And then get back to playing Maryland lacrosse.”
Tillman understands that doesn’t mean just winning, however. He knows that for his team to reach its full potential, it’ll need to learn from the good and the bad of the game’s waning moments.
“There are times when good kids make bad decisions,” Tillman said. “And we’ve got to make sure that we talk to those guys, we educate them, we address it and we make sure it doesn’t happen again. Because it’s not going to happen again.”
Photo editor Charlie DeBoyace contributed to this report.
letourneau@umdbk.com
