Pat Young played lacrosse in New Jersey last year as a UMBC midfielder.

But that wasn’t home. Young was an hour away from his native Ewing, New Jersey. The former Retriever’s friends and family weren’t able to watch him field two ground balls in UMBC’s 4-2 victory over Monmouth.

The No. 11 Terps’ match Saturday against Princeton, however, will be the homecoming the senior transfer has longed for.

Young will be on the campus where his parents met, a 20-minute drive from the house he lived in for 16 years. With his production heating up over the past two games, Young said his return couldn’t come at a better time.

“Princeton is my backyard, so I’m really, really excited to get back there,” Young said. “It’s a childhood dream of mine.”

Before Young could look forward to this weekend’s game, however, he had to adjust to life in College Park.

A star at UMBC for three seasons — the America East Conference Rookie of the Year in 2013 and the team’s second-leading scorer as a junior — Young is now surrounded by teammates fresh off a national championship appearance.

Last year, the Retrievers won five of 13 games. The Terps lost only four of their 19 games.

When practice was over at UMBC, Young said, the players cleared the fields, headed to the locker room and moved on with their days. The end of each Terps practice, though, doesn’t signal the end of the day’s work.

“Nobody’s leaving the field right away; everyone’s working and staying that five, 10, 20 minutes afterward to help the team get better,” Young said. “There’s a different attitude here. You’re held to a high standard.”

But Young’s extra time didn’t translate into production right away. He failed to record a point in his first two games in red and black.

There were so many moving parts, coach John Tillman said — new faces, players missing time for injuries, players returning from injuries, an increased emphasis on quick ball movement — that the Terps lacked chemistry on offense.

To relieve some of the pressure, Young kept reminding himself, “As long as I continue to do what I know how to do, it’s going to come.”

He also enlisted help from midfielder Bryan Cole, a fifth-year senior who Young thinks “knows everything probably better than anyone else.”

The two are roommates each road trip, and when the Terps stayed in California for the Pacific Coast Shootout against Notre Dame last weekend, they reviewed plays together each night before going to sleep. Cole even peppered Young with pop quiz questions.

The Terps fell to the Fighting Irish, but Young earned his first point off an assist in the first quarter to keep the Terps in step with the nation’s top-ranked squad. That momentum carried through the cross-country trek to Philadelphia, where Young helped the Terps earn a “much-needed” victory against Drexel.

The midfielder, tabbed as one of Inside Lacrosse’s Preseason Honorable Mention All-Americans this year, racked up his first two goals as a Terp.

The Dragons drew a penalty later in the first quarter, but before the referees whistled the play dead, Young unleashed a long shot. Then he unleashed his fists into the air.

Two periods later, Drexel knotted the game at five, but Young helped revive the Terps’ offense as he wove through a sea of defenders to help his team regain the lead a minute after it disappeared.

“Young’s playing better,” Tillman said after the game. “We’re still not there, but I loved our effort”

Attackman Matt Rambo added: “Just getting comfortable and getting on the same page that we wanted. It’s great to see [him] have a really big game like that.”

Saturday, Young’s family and friends from home will pour into Sherrerd Field, hoping he can replicate the Drexel performance. The midfielder’s parents preordered 60 tickets, and they’re planning a tailgate for the whole group.

“It’s going to be a pretty big ordeal,” Young said. “Princeton is literally my hometown.”