As Penn State midfielder Mike Sutton celebrated the third of his three goals Sunday night, the Maryland men’s lacrosse defense huddled in front of the net.
There wasn’t much expression or movement from the Terps players, who lingered together a bit longer than usual. The Nittany Lions were in the middle of a 6-1 run.
Facing a four-goal deficit for the first time since March 5 — a five-point loss to No. 1 Notre Dame, a fate they haven’t suffered since — the No. 5 Terps knew they needed to quash No. 14 Penn State’s momentum before entering the locker room for halftime about nine minutes later.
And coach John Tillman’s squad did, stringing together four straight goals before halftime, en route to an 11-10 overtime triumph in State College, Pennsylvania.
“I give Penn State a lot of credit,” Tillman said. “We were kind of playing behind. I just felt like they were playing faster than we were.”
When the Terps (8-2, 2-0 Big Ten) hosted the Nittany Lions (7-4, 1-1) last year, Sutton also tallied a hat trick. In that contest, however, Maryland was the team that built an early advantage, leading 8-2 after the first 15 minutes in an eventual 12-5 win.
The Terps appeared poised to do the same at the Penn State Lacrosse Field when attackman Colin Heacock netted two of his three first-half goals in the first eight minutes. Midway through the opening period, midfielder Henry West knelt down and swiped his right fist after his goal that gave Maryland a 3-2 edge.
Penn State, though, did almost all of the celebrating for the remainder of the half.
The Nittany Lions rattled off three goals in a three-minute, 40-second stretch to close the first quarter. Midfielder Bryan Cole tried to halt the momentum with his first goal of the night — he also tallied the game-winner with 43 seconds left in the first overtime period — but Penn State responded with three more points.
The Terps defense struggled to find an answer to the Penn State attack that saw seven players notch at least one point.
Twice, goalkeeper Kyle Bernlohr came out of the crease to face a Nittany Lions attackman head-on to the side of the net. But each time Bernlohr stepped away, the player wrapped around the other direction to punch one in.
“Personally, I don’t think I had a good first half,” Bernlohr said after finishing with a career-high 14 saves. “I definitely could have bailed out my defense more, and I knew I had to step up.”
While the backline tried to regain its form, Maryland’s attack took control on the other end.
When Heacock netted his team-leading and career-best 23rd goal with about five minutes left in the half, he received a few pats on the back before trotting back for the faceoff.
But as attackman Louis Dubick and midfielder Connor Kelly helped the Terps crawl back within a point before intermission, the huddles again lasted a few extra seconds, this time with high-fives and cheers.
“That end of the second quarter when we had the ball for a while and we were able to generate some shots and get some goals, we hustled,” Tillman said. “We kind of settled in.”
