No. 10 Maryland men’s lacrosse Brian Ruppel had his breakout game in just his fourth career start against Virginia in 2023 as a true freshman. 

Ruppel set what is still his career high in saves against the Cavaliers, making clutch saves, leading Maryland to a thrilling overtime victory against its rivals.

Now in his senior season, Rueppel came back to haunt Virginia for the second time. He again came up huge with multiple clutch saves and forced turnovers late to save Maryland from a late-game collapse, after the Terps gave up four straight goals in the fourth quarter. 

Maryland’s offense finally broke through as Zach Whittier scored the game-winner in the third overtime period, giving Maryland a 13-12 win.

Ruppel has been the subject of scrutiny all season for Maryland. After taking over for Logan McNaney, Ruppel struggled during the Terps 1-3 start to the season. 

That was not the case Saturday as Ruppel made 14 saves, good for a 53.8% save percentage. 

Ruppel came through late in the game, especially in overtime. In the third overtime period, Ruppel made two saves, keeping Maryland alive. After Ruppel’s second save of the period, the Terps were able to finally break through, as Whittier finessed his way past the Virginia defense and put the shot past Jake Marek, ending the game.

He shut out Virginia in extra time, picking up a reeling Terps team after Maryland blew a three-goal lead heading into the fourth quarter. 

“Second week in a row, I feel like Brian [Ruppel] has played great,” head coach John Tillman said. “We got some great stops when we really needed them.”

Maryland’s defense was excellent right out of the gate. They held the high-powered Virginia offense to just two goals in the first quarter.

The defense played well for most of the game for Maryland, but struggled late. The amount of turnovers given up from the attack proved too much for the Terps to overcome on the defensive side of the ball. 

Virginia applied continuous pressure, breaking down the Terps’ offense en route to a four-goal run.

The key for the Terps was limiting McCabe Millon, who has been dominant so far this year, to just one goal on six shots. 

Will Schaller shut down Million for the entirety of regulation, but on the final possession before overtime, Schaller went down with a lower body injury, holding his knee after trying to stay in front of Millon.

The Millon assignment was handed to Peter Laake during overtime, and he delivered. The Cavaliers fed their star attacker every possession, but Millon missed two shots. Despite trying to beat Laake multiple times, he could not get past the Terps defender.

“Seeing [Schaller] go down, it’s tough … just keep playing and kind of next man up,” senior midfielder George Stamos said. “We all kind of just lean on each other.”

Without Millon producing at his usual level, the Cavaliers’ offense didn’t have the firepower to overcome it.

On the offensive side of the ball, turnovers continue to be, without question, the biggest problem for Maryland. Totalling 18 in the game, the attack gave away a multitude of opportunities due to lack of ball security. 

In large part because of the giveaways, Maryland’s offense shut down late in the game and could not produce anything for nearly the entire fourth quarter.

Twelve different Maryland players turned the ball over. In the fourth quarter, the attack completely shut down, allowing Virginia to charge back into the game, scoring four straight goals over the first 12 minutes.

Dominating faceoffs was extra crucial for Maryland. Henry Dodge came into the game leading the nation in faceoff win percentage, and Dodge performed well again, winning 10 of 15 attempts for a 66.7% win rate. Dodge also won the faceoff in the third overtime period, allowing the Terps to start off with the momentum. 

Maryland produced some offense early in the game by spreading the ball around the field. Without Eric Spanos, the Terps lacked a single dominant threat on offense; the offense made up for it by having nine different players score.

Facilitating the scoring for Maryland was Braden Erksa with four assists, but Leo Johnson took over the offense late in the game.

Without Spanos, the offense ran through Johnson late in the game and he delivered, scoring three goals to lead the team, including the game-tying goal with 39 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Johnson accounted for the Terps’ overtime goal as well, assisting  Zach Whittier on the game-winning goal.

The win gives Maryland its second straight heading into Big Ten play. Despite the plethora of things that Tillman and the Terps will have to clean up heading into next week’s top 10 matchup against Penn State, the win over Virginia could be the spark to ignite Maryland back to the pre-season No. 1 team that was expected.

“Every guy has been battling, and even when we were 1-3 everybody kept believing,” Tillman said. “It’s still been fun, and we haven’t lost faith in each other.”