By Jacob Steinberg
The Ohio State Buckeyes (7-6, 2-2 Big Ten) upset the No.1 Maryland Terrapins (10-2, 3-1 Big Ten) in a hard fought battle 12-10 in a rematch of last year’s national championship game. It was senior day in College Park with 6,395 excited fans on hand, but the Buckeyes spoiled the show. Jack Jasinski lead the Buckeyes with seven points, including five assists tying his season total prior. Jasinski facilitated to his teammates whenever he was double teamed or drew a slide. They dominated at the x Justin Inacio won 17-of-26 faceoffs and picked up 11 more ground balls than Maryland.
Ohio State came out of the gates hot, Jasinski scored his first of two goals on the day ripping a high shot past the left shoulder of Dan Morris a little over a minute in. A minute and a half later, Jasinski fed Colin Chell who scored the second goal from in tight after Jasinski drew the slide. With 11:09 left in the first quarter, Chell scored his second goal on the feed from JT Bugliosi. Coach John Tillman called timeout after, to relax his team and make some defensive adjustments.
The Terps got their first extra man opportunity with 9:36 left in the first quarter and did not the opportunity pass. Connor Kelly fed Logan Wisnauskas after forcing the Buckeye turnover for a transition goal to cut the deficit to two. A minute later, Nick Brosowski executed a beautiful yard sale check setting up the fastbreak finished off by Kelly on the feed from Jared Bernhardt.
With three minutes left in the first quarter Tim Rotanz tied it up from in tight, extending his consecutive point streak to 26 games. Just before the end of the first quarter, Jasinski drew the slide and fed Chell inside for the hat trick. It was the same play as Chell’s first goal, giving the Buckeyes a 4-3 lead after one quarter.
Three minutes into the second quarter Bubba Fairman drew the slide and fed Wisnauskas, who scored in tight in between the legs of Kirson tying the game at four. After a successful penalty kill, Kelly scored his second goal of the game on a vintage roll back dodge, that he has patented throughout his college career. Tre Leclaire bounced back for the Buckeyes less than a minute later, firing an absolute laser high past Morris once again off the feed from Jasinski.
After five minutes of scoreless action, Kelly scored a hat trick firing a shot into the bottom corner of the net his eighth hat trick of the season putting the Terps back on top 6-5. Just before halftime, Jackson Reid scored his first of three goals from in tight once again on the Jasinski feed after he drew the slide.
After struggling at the faceoff ‘X’ in the first half, Coach Tillman made the switch to freshman Justin Shockey who had been struggling recently. Shockey did a solid job winning 50 percent of his faceoffs in the second half. Similar to the first half, the Buckeyes had their second 3-0 run to start a quarter. Colin Smith scored one minute in beating Morris far post. With 12:51 remaining in the third quarter Reid dodged around Drew Harrison beating Morris top shelf to extend the lead to 8-6. Chell tacked on one more for the Buckeyes, off the feed from Lukas Buckley increasing the lead to three with 11:32 left in the third quarter.
Similar to the first half ,the Terps would answer back with their own 3-0 run started by Bernhardt who backed down his defender and bounced a turnaround shot past Kirson. Senior Adam DiMillo scored his first of the day after the Terps wore down the Buckeye defense after a long possession. At the end of three quarters the Buckeyes still lead by one 9-8, for the first time all year the Terps trailed heading into the fourth quarter.
With 13:19 left in the game, Anthony Demaio tied it up on a nice jump shot beating Kirson high. Off of the ensuing faceoff, Leclaire made a great hustle play pushing the ball forward to Chell who fed Reid completing the hat trick to make it 10-9 Buckeyes. Kirson came up with some big stops in the fourth quarter and with 6:09 left Jasinski fed Hank Bethke for his first goal of the day extending the Buckeye lead to two.
After pulling goalie Dan Morris with less than a minute left, Jasinski dodged past Bryce Young for the empty net goal making it 12-9 Buckeyes with 33 seconds left. After winning the faceoff Kelly scored his fourth goal of the day making it 12-10, but unfortunately it was too little too late for the Terps.
Reflecting on the loss Coach Tillman said after the game, “Take the positives from this, take the things we didn’t do well and learn from them.”
Maryland will look to bounce back against in state rival Johns Hopkins next Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in Baltimore.
