By Jasmine Brown
Only one win was standing in the way of the Terps lacrosse team from becoming Big Ten regular season champions for a second consecutive year. Maryland faced Ohio State in College Park Sunday, with the 1-2 Buckeyes looking to spoil the feat for the Terps, but it would not happen.
“Not necessarily our cleanest game, but I thought they played really hard for 60 minutes,” said head coach John Tillman.
In the first quarter, Matt Rambo would strike early, giving the Terps a quick 1-0 lead, but Ohio State would answer and it continued to happen throughout the first quarter. The score was tied 3-3, but Ohio State would take the lead going into the second quarter 4-3.
The Terps would find themselves trailing down two goals as Ohio State lead 5-3 in the second. Maryland, being used to this adversity would overcome it, scoring 3 unanswered goals to take a 6-5 lead going into the half.
Maryland would build upon their first half momentum by scoring 4 more goals taking a commanding 9-5 lead going into the fourth. Ohio State stopped the bleeding by scoring a goal pulling them within 3, but the Terps would score their 10th goal, leading 10-6. The Buckeyes would score 2 more goals, but it would not be enough to hold off the Terps, making them Big Ten champions for the second year in a row. Matt Rambo, Colin Heacock, and Bryan Cole all scored 2 goals in the big win.
When asked how the locker room environment was regarding their win streaks, Coach Tillman addressed that it was not a big priority for them. “We live so day to day that we haven’t even talked about it,” said Tillman. “The goal is to win every game.”
Isaiah Davis Allen added that staying focused was one of the keys to winning their games. “One of the big words for us is focus and you can’t focus when you’re worried about the next four games you have to focus in that minute and that second and I think that’s something that our coach has done a great job on us taking in that mindset.”
The Terps play their final regular season game against No. 8 Johns Hopkins Saturday, April 30. Tip off starts at 2 p.m. at Homewood Field in Baltimore.
