Tyler Adelsberger stood before the rest of his teammates in the Byrd Stadium locker room during halftime of the Terrapins men’s lacrosse team’s first-round NCAA tournament game against Cornell on Saturday and delivered a message.

The Big Red had built a four-goal lead after a flawless first-half performance, and it appeared the Terps were headed for another premature conclusion to a previously encouraging season.

But the senior midfielder, who played in only four games this season, wasn’t ready for the end of his career. Nor was he ready to part ways with the tight-knit group of players and friends, young and old, who had grown so close this season. So Adelsberger looked his comrades in the eyes and asked them if they wanted these next 30 minutes to be the last they ever spent together on a lacrosse field.

The emotional speech energized the team, and it fueled a furious comeback from the Terps, who outscored Cornell by five goals in the final two quarters to clinch an 8-7 victory. Adelsberger’s message resonated most with freshmen attackmen Matt Rambo and Connor Cannizzaro. The duo led the late surge with five combined second-half goals, three of which came in the final 12 minutes of the contest.

“I can’t use every word he used because this is a PG crowd,” coach John Tillman said during the postgame news conference. “But I think it was passionate. I thought it came from the heart. … We got a reset. And the kids just played like it was 0-0.”

Tillman said the Terps started slowly because his players were too fired up and Cornell carried out a solid game plan. In the first two periods, the Terps took 18 shots — one more than the Big Red  — but 10 of those were off target. Big Red goalkeeper Christian Knight, a freshman, was stout in goal with seven first-half saves.

Nonetheless, Rambo said he never lost his confidence because of the unwavering support from the Terps’ upperclassmen and coaches.

“I wasn’t rushed,” Rambo said. “I wasn’t really worried about it [because] everyone said they were going to fall. And they did.”

Attackman Jay Carlson scored the first goal of the third quarter for the Terps on a shovel rebound with 11:18 left in the period. After the play, defender Jordan Stevens leveled Carlson with a cross-check to the head and earned a one-minute penalty.

Rambo finally got on the board during that extra-man opportunity when he ripped an underhand lefty shot past Knight from the top of the offensive formation.

One minute later, Cannizzaro added his first goal of the night. After receiving a skip pass from attackman Mike Chanenchuk, Cannizzaro faked a long-range right-handed shot before he pulled his stick down, slid past his defender and found the top right corner with a high bounce shot.

Tillman said those two goals were crucial for the youngsters, and they raised the Terps’ energy on the field and along the sideline.

Another cross-check from Stevens in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter gave the Terps, down 6-4, a one-minute extra-man opportunity. When no one picked up Rambo eight yards from the cage, the freshman stepped into a left-handed bullet that went between Knight’s legs for his second goal of the game.

Just more than two minutes later, Rambo completed his hat trick. The attackman collected Carlson’s errant shot behind the goal and quickly drove to his left before finishing a wraparound goal. Then, with 8:12 remaining, Cannizzaro added his second goal of the contest after dodging to his right from behind the cage and slotting a similar diving shot.

In total, Rambo and Cannizzaro scored five straight goals for the Terps during a span stretching just more than 18 minutes. But it was Chanenchuk’s game-winning goal with two seconds remaining that clinched the team a spot in the quarterfinal game against Bryant this weekend.

“It’s what this team’s been,” Tillman said. “Leading by example but enabling some younger players to get us where we need to be.”

The freshmen’s performances against Cornell came as no surprise to players, coaches or fans, though. All season, Cannizzaro and Rambo have carried the Terps offense.

And though their development and maturation were largely due to the guidance of upperclassmen such as Chanenchuk, Carlson and midfielder Joe LoCascio, the duo still produced on a week-to-week basis. Rambo is the team’s second-leading scorer with 29 goals while Cannizzaro ranks third with 22. Each has also added six assists in 15 games.

“Those guys have played well beyond their years,” Tillman said.

During the week before the first-round game against the Big Red, Tillman approached both Rambo and Cannizzaro and told them their time as freshmen was over. With the NCAA tournament quickly approaching, he needed his two star attackmen to play and act like veterans.

In the first half, nerves, excitement and quality defense thwarted Cannizzaro and Rambo. But with their season in jeopardy and a number of seniors, including Adelsberger, looking on desperately from the sideline, Cannizzaro and Rambo responded.

“They grew up before our eyes,” Chanenchuk said. “They were being leaders out there today, which was really awesome to see.”