BALTIMORE – Terrapin men’s lacrosse attackman Grant Catalino didn’t plan to take out his frustrations on UMBC defender Bobby Atwell.
But on Saturday, a week after getting off just one shot against Towson, that’s how it worked out.
When Atwell stood between a Catalino shot and the goal cage in the fourth quarter, he proved to be just about the only deterrent to Catalino’s offense the Retrievers could manage that day.
“I feel bad,” Catalino said. “I caught the ball, and I thought I had shot right away, but he was sliding out to me, and I hit him in the stomach with the ball. But I talked to him, and I think he’s OK.”
Atwell dropped to the ground after taking the shot to the gut, forcing a timeout on the field as trainers and coaches came from the sidelines to check on him and help him off the field.
By the time he re-entered the game seven minutes later, Catalino had taken another shot and scored his fourth and final goal, and the No. 5 Terps (6-0) had wrapped up a 13-7 win against the unranked Retrievers.
Adding three assists to make it a seven-point performance, Catalino tied a career high in points and proved emphatically that his scoreless showing against Towson on March 13 was merely an aberration.
The Tiger defenders had doggedly pursued Catalino, holding him to one assist and no goals. Aggravated that he couldn’t break free from the pressure, Catalino received four penalties in the game.
“They game-planned that they didn’t want Grant Catalino to shoot,” coach Dave Cottle said. “They went with him everywhere and shut him off.”
In every other game this season, he has put the ball in the cage, usually multiple times. The week before the Towson match, he got a career-high five goals against Duke. But after struggling against Towson, Catalino scored just twice in a midweek meeting with Penn on March 15 — a disappointing total for the Terps’ scoring leader. He was mostly content passing to teammates as he tried to regain his rhythm.
At UMBC, though, the starting attackman came out on a mission. Catalino tore through the Retrievers’ backline, converting all four of his shots on goal and 4-of-6 overall. And had Atwell not gotten in his way, he might have had another.
This season, the junior is making 64 percent of his shots on goal and 39 percent of all his shots, about a 15 percentage point increase in both statistics from last season.
“I can shoot the ball pretty fast, but I’ve always had an issue with hitting the cage,” Catalino said. “Now, I’m still aiming my shots, but instead of aiming for the itty-bitty corner, I’m just aiming for net.”
His plan has worked so far. Including his seven points against the Retrievers, he has totaled at least six points in four games this season, a mark he reached only twice before this year. With four goals and three assists on Saturday, Catalino reached 14 goals and 15 assists for the season, giving him 11 more points than anyone else on the team and putting him on pace to shatter his previous bests.
“I’m just letting everything come to me right now,” Catalino said. “I don’t go into the games and take any of our team’s success on my shoulders. It really seems like the ball is just ending up in the right spot when it comes in my stick.”
Unless an unfortunate defender stands in his way.
kyanchulis@umdbk.com
