Daniel Maltz and Jack Koras starred early during No. 7 Maryland men’s lacrosse’s win over Brown on Saturday. The pair accounted for five of the Terps’ six first-half goals, highlighted by Maltz’s hat trick.
After the break, Braden Erksa took over. The sophomore scored a pair of goals in the third quarter and added three more scores in the fourth to help force overtime.
Erksa eventually got the ball on the first possession of the extra period and made a move, cutting back inside to gain leverage against his defender. The Bears double-teamed Erksa, leaving Maltz open 10 yards from the cage.
Maltz immediately scored the game-winner as the Terps who led the offense in each half combined to seal the win. Saturday showed Maryland doesn’t have one dominant player on offense — the Terps rely on multiple players to score.
“I think on the offensive end, we should be a team that each week, the scoring is going to be spread a little bit differently,” coach John Tillman said. “Because we’re really not built to be a group that just relies on one guy.”
[No. 7 Maryland men’s lacrosse scrapes past Brown, 14-13, in overtime]
Between 2019 and 2022, when the Terps claimed one national championship and went to another, their offense always had at least one Tewaaraton Award winner — Jared Bernhardt or Logan Wisnauskas.
Bernhardt and Wisnauskas could raise their teammates and make unscripted plays, Tillman said, noting that’s among the reasons why the Terps’ offense leaned so heavily on them.
Maryland doesn’t have a player of that caliber this year.
Erksa, the Terps’ leading scorer, is only a sophomore and hasn’t shown week-to-week consistency. He’s shot above 40 percent in three outings, but at or below 20 percent in the other three. Maltz, a four-time starter and five-year contributor, has never led Maryland in scoring.
No Terp besides those two has double-digit goals this year. Four players — Koras, Eric Spanos, Eric Malever and Ryan Siracusa — have struck between seven and nine times.
“We just [have] got to ride the momentum, ride the hot hand,” Siracusa said Saturday.
[Maryland men’s lacrosse’s stars struggled in its first loss of the season]
Maltz and Koras were those hot hands before halftime against Brown, starting and ending Maryland’s first-half scoring. Erksa assumed the mantle after halftime to lead the Terps’ comeback.
But even when those three starred, the rest of the offense remained involved. Malever, Spanos, Siracusa and Owen Murphy all assisted on at least one goal. Nine of Maryland’s 14 scores came from an assist.
Six Terps have crossed the 10-point threshold this season, with at least seven recording points in each game. Maryland hasn’t had the same leading scorer in back-to-back weeks.
“Every player has a role … just getting everyone involved, I feel like that’s the big key we need,” Koras said. “It’s not just one individual person.”
The egalitarian approach also requires the Terps to be content with limited point totals spread throughout the lineup. Tillman doesn’t believe it will be an issue.
“I don’t think any of these guys evaluate themselves based on how many points they got,” he said. “I think they just want to win. They want to play good offense and just do their part.”
