Midfielder Bryan Cole celebrates with teammates after his goal during the Terps’ 12-11 victory over Johns Hopkins in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on May 23, 2015.
PHILADELPHIA — Three years after capturing the 1975 NCAA championship, the Terrapins men’s lacrosse team fell to Johns Hopkins in the national semifinals. The Blue Jays went on to win the title that year. The Terps, meanwhile, haven’t won the championship since.
Saturday, the No. 6-seed Terps opened their NCAA semifinal tilt against Johns Hopkins with four of the first five goals and led their rival for the majority of the game. But with less than one minute remaining, freshman attackman Shack Stanwick possessed the ball in the attack area with an opportunity to finish Johns Hopkins’ thrilling comeback with an overtime-forcing goal.
But the Blue Jays couldn’t eliminate the Terps for the eighth time during their 40-year title drought. Stanwick’s shot hit the side netting of the cage, and goalkeeper Kyle Bernlohr stopped midfielder Joel Tinney’s last ditch attempt seconds later as the Terps held on for a 12-11 victory before an announced 29,123 at Lincoln Financial Field to earn a berth in the national championship.
Attackman Matt Rambo paced the Terps with four goals and two assists. Coach John Tillman’s team will play No. 4-seed Denver in the final Monday afternoon.
“I really felt like that when we they got to 10-10, we needed to be able to weather that storm, and I thought Matt’s goal was a big play,” Tillman said. “It kind of calmed us down a little bit. But for us, it’s kind of a typical outcome. It’s not pretty. We’re not always clean, but the guys stuck together.”
The Terps possessed a 10-5 lead with 7:28 remaining in the third, but the Blue Jays responded with five unanswered goals in a run that carried into the fourth. With 11:45 left in the game, attackman Ryan Brown, who scored eight times in Johns Hopkins’ regular-season win over the Terps, deposited his only goal to tie the game at 10.
With the Terps in jeopardy of suffering their second consecutive NCAA semifinal loss, Rambo stepped up. Playing in his home state, the sophomore scored two goals in less than three minutes and push the momentum back to the Terps.
“Ever since I was little, I’ve always been in the stands for the Final Four in Philadelphia every time it came here,” Rambo said. “It’s finally a dream come true to come back here in the Final Four at Philly and the championship game.”
But minutes later, Rambo leveled Johns Hopkins goalkeeper Eric Schneider and was charged with an unnecessary roughness penalty. Stanwick capitalized with a goal on the extra-man opportunity and faceoff specialist Hunter Moreland won the ensuing draw before Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala took a timeout.
“I think we settled down in the second half and we went back to playing blue collar, hardnosed Johns Hopkins lacrosse in the second half,” Pietramala said. “Unfortunately we didn’t do that in the first half.”
When the rivals played on April 25, Johns Hopkins overcame a three-goal deficit to capture a 15-12 win. But with a spot in the national championship on the line, they weren’t able to complete another comeback.
The Terps dominated time of possession in the first half, as faceoff specialist Charlie Raffa went 8-for-12 at the X. In turn, the Terps used long possessions to milk the clock and won the ground ball battle, 13- 9.
As the game wore on, though, Raffa cooled off, and Moreland recovered the first three faceoffs of the fourth period cleanly. And while the defense held Brown to 1-for-8 shooting, Schneider made 13 saves to partially neutralize the Terps’ shot advantage.
When Stanwick’s shot in the final minute zipped into the outside portion of the netting, the Johns Hopkins fans in attendance roared. For a moment, it seemed that the game was headed to overtime. It appeared the Terps’ 40-year championship drought was at risk of continuing.
But then Bernlohr scooped the ball up and rocketed a long pass to the other sideline that trickled out of bounds. The Blue Jays worked the ball into the attack area again before Bernlohr stopped the shot with the handle of his stick. Seconds later, the clock hit triple zeroes, and the Terps stormed the field in celebration.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of Hopkins/Maryland games,” Carlson said. “We definitely threw the record books out for that game and it should be a very physical match. So it’s definitely great to be a part of one today.”
