With less than three minutes left in the first half of the Maryland men’s lacrosse team’s match against Penn State, Nittany Lions goalkeeper Will Schreiner popped the ball up to himself for a save as his momentum pushed him toward the end line. But after attackman Dylan Maltz closed in, guiding the sophomore netminder out of bounds with his stick to Schreiner’s back, the officials called a foul on Maltz for pushing.

Meanwhile, attackman Colin Heacock raced to the other side of the net to retrieve the ball Schreiner had heaved over his shoulder while crossing the line. As Heacock picked up the ball, the referee blew his whistle to signal him for a delay of game.

For 30 seconds, the Terps’ defense was short two players.

Maryland, though, negated Penn State’s advantage as goalkeeper Kyle Bernlohr trapped the ball in the crease and cleared it. It was one of the instances in Sunday’s overtime victory in State College, Pennsylvania, in which coach John Tillman felt his team displayed toughness.

“It wasn’t pretty, but we really competed hard,” Tillman said. “When we weren’t playing well, just our competitiveness kind of got us some opportunities and kind of kept us in the game.”

While last year’s squad finished first in the nation in scoring defense, Tillman and associate head coach/defensive coordinator Kevin Conry agreed during a film session a few weeks ago that this season’s shorthanded unit has improved.

The Terps rank second in the country in man-down efficiency. Through 10 games, they have surrendered five goals in the 25 chances in which opponents had an extra-man advantage.

“Our really big focus has been focus on our fundamentals,” Conry said last week. “If you can limit their amount of opportunities, you can have a successful man-down unit.”

Though Maltz couldn’t adhere to that mantra — he committed a foul and was sent to the sideline — attackman Matt Rambo did moments earlier.

With about four minutes left in the second quarter, Penn State forced a turnover in the Terps’ attacking third. Midfielder Tommy O’Neill tried to clear against the Terps’ ride, but Rambo barreled in and unleashed a one-handed windmill hack to pop the ball out of O’Neill’s stick.

The junior corralled the ground ball and fed attackman Louis Dubick behind the net before the rookie rounded the crease. Dubick then dove and rifled his shot over Schreiner’s head for the score.

A Penn State player rolled over Dubick. Soon, his Terps teammates jumped on him, too.

Dubick’s score was the second in the team’s 4-0 run that spanned the break. Midfielder Henry West capped the spurt 64 seconds into the third quarter to tie the game at eight.

“At halftime, it was like, ‘Listen, it was a one-goal game. You’ve just got to win the second half,'” Tillman said. “All of the sudden, it’s tied, and it’s like, ‘OK, it’s kind of a restart to the game.'”

The sixth-year coach said his team regained its rhythm with success in the faceoff X, too. Penn State won eight faceoffs in the first half and forced the Terps to play long defensive possessions.

In the final 30 minutes plus overtime, however, Maryland held a 6-2 advantage in the X despite faceoff specialist Austin Henningsen not playing in the second half.

Henningsen ran off the field limping after a first-half faceoff, and Tillman thought he had banged his leg on another player. During his Tuesday morning conference call, Tillman said he didn’t expect the rookie to miss extensive time.

So midfielder Will Bonaparte finished 11-for-17 as the Terps’ primary option in the X, and midfielder Isaiah Davis-Allen and defender Greg Danseglio combined for nine ground balls on the wings.

The extra possessions helped the Terps outscore the Nittany Lions 4-2 after halftime to stave off Penn State’s upset bid.

“That was just a gritty, gritty win,” Bernlohr said.