By: Cody Wilcox
Last season against Johns Hopkins in “The Rivalry” game that took place in Homewood Stadium, Maryland midfielder Will Snider caught a skip pass from teammate Logan Wisnauskas and sent a shot over the left shoulder of Hopkins’ goalie to capture his seventh goal of the season. Snider’s goal not only allowed the Terps to escape with an 8-7 win in triple overtime, but captured the Big Ten regular-season title for Maryland.
That goal would be his final one for his junior season.
This year, Snider has surpassed last year’s scoring output with eight goals in 11 games and has been a consistent component of the Terps’ attack.
“He’s done a lot of things that I think good shooters will do and smart shooters do,” Maryland head coach John Tillman said. “It’s not always how hard you shoot, a lot of times its using a little deception, keeping the goalies off balance and shot selection.”
Snider started his senior campaign off slowly, recording one goal in the Terps’ first five games. But Snider remained optimistic and said he wouldn’t try to force anything on offense with other capable scorers surrounding him.
The Seattle native finally broke through with a career-high three goals against Notre Dame, which catalyzed an uptick in his offensive production. He would go on to notch four goals in the following five games, including one goal in each of the past three contests.
“I think early on, there were some things that we felt like we could help [Snider] with. He did a great job of just doing some extra work and staying after practice and working on some fundamentals,” Tillman said. “Just trying to look at where could he be better, because of obviously he was a little slow out of the gate.”
Not really known for his scoring, Snider has acknowledged the importance of his role on the Maryland offense as more of a dodger and major contributor to the Terps’ ball movement. That role has progressed to adding more of a shooting elemen with help from the Maryland coaching staff.
Throughout the year, Snider has spent time with Tillman and staff taking anywhere from 50 to 100 additional shots after practice to become a larger threat on the offensive end of the ball. Snider says that revisiting the basic shooting fundamentals has given him more confidence as teams scouted him as an offensive player with not a lot of variety in his shot placement.
“I was shooting already a lot, but I think getting with coach [Tillman] — just working on some of my bad habits shooting wise really helped me become a better shooter,” Snider said. “But he also helped me learn to be more of an artist when I shoot. If I shoot the first one low, maybe shoot the next one high.”
With previous teams that Snider has been a part of in the past including offensive juggernauts like Connor Kelly, Tim Rotanz and current teammates Logan Wisnauskas and Jared Bernhardt, Snider hasn’t been called upon to contribute in the scoring category.
But in the past two seasons, where he has seen the majority of his playing time, Snider has seen an increased role. While he has not previously lit up the stats sheet with a career total of 15 goals and five assists, Snider has proven to his teammates and opposing teams this season that he is capable of supporting Maryland’s core attackman in the scoring section.
“He did his own part, he stayed after with coach Tillman. He’d shoot everyday,” Wisnauskas said. “And you guys are seeing the results — Notre Dame, he comes out and sticks three in a row in the third quarter [to] give us a spark there. He’s doing a good job.”
