Terps fall in Big Ten championship to Johns Hopkins

By Jacob Steinberg

The Maryland men’s lacrosse team was trying to win its third consecutive Big Ten championship, but the Johns Hopkins’ high-octane offense proved too much. Johns Hopkins (11-4, 3-2 Big Ten) defeated Maryland (12-3, 4-1 Big Ten) 13-10 in Ann Arbor, Michigan in a back-and-forth affair. Ultimately for Maryland, the 14-save performance by Senior Brock Turnbaugh and five-goal performance by sophomore attackmen Cole Williams, was too difficult for the Terps to overcome. In the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter Turnbaugh made four huge saves on Maryland’s Connor Kelly.

The story of the last time these two storied rivals faced off was the Hopkins defense limiting the Terps two offensive stars Kelly and junior attackmen Jared Bernhardt to two total points combined. Although Kelly had four points in the first half tonight, he was shut out in the second half and Bernhardt did not register a point tonight.

The first quarter was a tough one for the Terps, they had three penalties including an offside penalty very uncharacteristic of a John Tillman coached team. Hopkins started the scoring 18 seconds in, senior faceoff specialist Hunter Moreland took it all the way on a fast break beating senior goalie Dan Morris. After a few minutes of scoreless action, senior midfielder Tim Rotanz tied the game at one finishing a cross field pass from Kelly.

Senior attackmen Shack Stanwick set up two of Hopkins first three goals feeding Senior Midfielder Thomas Guida and junior Attackmen Kyle Marr. Guida came up huge in this one with three goals for Hopkins after barely playing in the first meeting last Sunday. After Turnbaugh made a huge save in tight on freshman Logan Wisnauskas, Williams took it all the way on the fastbreak scoring in the waning seconds of the first quarter.

The second quarter was a much different one for the Terps, they were able to come back from the three goal deficit and take the lead. Kelly came back with two big plays for the Terps setting up freshman Bubba Fairman with a cross field pass and then scoring soon after. Fairman’s goal was a scorcher into the top right corner of the net, and Kelly dodged around his defender beating Turnbaugh over his right hip.

After cutting the lead to one the Terps tallied on two more goals to regain the lead 5-4. First Colin Giblin scored on the bouncing jumpshot and then Senior Long Stick Midfielder Matt Neufeldt fed Kelly for his second goal of the day with 5:24 remaining in the first half. Similar to the first quarter, Hopkins scored with less than ten seconds left Senior Midfielder Joel Tinney fed Marr who finished in tight although being surrounded by a triple team.

At the half the game was tied at five setting up a second half where Hopkins dominated much of the play. Junior midfielder Will Snider continued his hot play against Hopkins once again scoring two goals, the first a lefty rip after gaining separation using a split dodge and the second a high rip on the feed from Wisnauskas. The two goal lead would not last for long, Williams evaded junior Defender Curtis Corley’s checks and then fed Marr for the tying goal vanquishing the Terps lead with 6:31 remaining in the third quarter.

Hopkins regained the lead once again when Marr fed senior midfielder Brinton Valis who was left uncovered right in front of the crease. Guida scored once again for Hopkins executing a roll back dodge to perfection and beating Morris. He was not done finishing off his hat trick, once again executing a roll dodge creating separation in order to roof a bounce shot into the net. After three quarters the Terps had a tough hill to climb down 10-7.

Similar to the last matchup against Hopkins, freshman faceoff specialist Justin Shockey won the faceoff and took it all the way beating Turnbaugh cutting the lead to 10-8 15 seconds into the fourth quarter. Williams answered back twice with two huge goals extending the lead to four, scoring twice with his off hand on feeds from Marr and freshman midfielder Connor DeSimone.

With 4:56 left, Hopkins scored its nicest goal of the game Stanwick spun around his defender and fed a leaping Williams topping off his six point day. Rotanz fed junior extra man specialist Louis Dubick for two goals in the final four minutes that were not enough to complete the comeback.

The Terps will now await their seeding in the NCAA Tournament, which will be announced Sunday at 6 p.m.