Junior midfielder Bill McGlone (right) scored the game-tying goal against Virginia in the first round of the ACC tournament Friday.
Down one goal with two and a half minutes left against Virginia in the first round of the ACC tournament, the Terrapin men’s lacrosse team turned to its team captain — junior midfielder Bill McGlone.
Yet at the time, in the season’s biggest moment up to that point, McGlone came as somewhat of a surprise despite entering the season as one of the Terps’ top three offensive leaders.
McGlone had four missed shots and one turnover that led to Virginia’s first goal. He had only four goals and one assist in the previous six games. A shoulder injury had limited his effectiveness in the offense.
None of that mattered. McGlone took a pass from about 17 yards away from the net, charged forward a few steps and bounced a shot past Cavalier goalie Kip Turner’s right side. The goal tied the game with 2:20 left.
McGlone had two chances to win the game: one with five seconds left in regulation and the other by taking the Terps’ first shot in overtime. Both shots were saved, but the second careened high in the air, allowing freshman attackman Maxwell Ritz to swat it back in for the game-winner.
“It’s funny because I remember saying in my head, ‘I haven’t even been in this game. I haven’t done anything,’” McGlone said after the game. “I had to do something. So I remember thinking in my head, ‘I’m going to get the tying goal and the winning goal.’ I got the tying goal and had two chances at the winning goal but couldn’t. As long as someone got it, I’m happy.”
The goal came as a sweet reward for more than a month of pain. McGlone started the season with performances that indicated he would live up to his preseason All-American hype. He scored 14 goals and added four assists through his first five games. He was tied with fellow junior All-American attackman Joe Walters as the team’s leading scorer.
But then his game and shoulder stiffened up.
After scoring four goals in the first quarter against Maryland-Baltimore County March 19, McGlone suffered a deep bone bruise on his left shoulder and had to sit out for most of the remainder of the game. He returned near the end of the fourth quarter to tally his fifth goal — a career high. But after the game, McGlone was surprisingly reserved about his performance and the Terps’ win.
“It kind of sucked because that happened in the best game of the year,” McGlone said. “I scored four goals in the first quarter and then boom, I’m out for most of the rest of the game and have to go all right-handed. I was on a good streak, and it made me peak too early. It sucks because when you get on a roll like that you just have to work through it, and the shoulder just halts your momentum that you’ve worked so hard for. But you just have to work through it and I still am.”
McGlone has been visibly limited on the field. Without his left-handed shot, he has made abnormal dodges and allowed defenders to shade him heavily toward his right.
He struggled to make simple passes at times, especially against then-No. 3-ranked Virginia and then-No. 1 Johns Hopkins. He also had trouble staying on his feet, tripping out of nowhere and allowing a fast-break goal against the Blue Jays.
His drop in stats, coupled with the Terps’ offensive depression and three straight losses, took a toll on McGlone. He bore much of the team’s failure on his shoulders.
McGlone was the first player to accept blame despite his impediment, although the injury was never brought up with the team or the media.
“It shows something about his character because all the players and coaches realized it hurt him a lot more than he let on,” senior midfielder Andrew Schwartzman said after Friday’s game. “He never complained about it. You can tell in some situations that it really hurt him.
“He’s what we like to call a gamer. When game time comes it doesn’t matter whether he’s been playing bad or average, the kid is going to put his entire heart out on the line. He does things on the field that nobody else in lacrosse can do. He’s resilient and he showed that today.”
McGlone’s game-tying goal was not only the Terps’ biggest goal of the season up to that point, but it was also a turning point for one of the Terps’ most lethal weapons, despite the shoulder injury.
“I think he needed it,” coach Dave Cottle said. “Billy has worked very hard and has had a period where he didn’t play as well as he would have liked, and it was because he was injured. He played hurt where a lot of other kids wouldn’t have played hurt.”
McGlone scored once against Duke, giving the Terps a 5-2 lead with 3:02 left in the third quarter. He cut inside and was wide open for a pass from junior attackman Xander Ritz.
He isn’t back to averaging almost three goals a game and there are still some kinks to work out as far as errant passes, but McGlone’s shoulder is back to 100 percent now — just in the time for the NCAA tournament. Not surprisingly, the Terps confidence seems fully restored as well.
“It helped me a lot just to get into the game. When you’re used to scoring and you go through a game not scoring and not playing well, you try not to let it affect the way you play in the future,” McGlone said. “But you can’t help sometimes have it creep in the back of your head that you’re not doing the things you’re supposed to. I wish I could have done this earlier.”
