Photo courtesy of umterps.com
There was never really any question as to which team would walk off the field victorious in tonight’s lacrosse game played inside Byrd Stadium.
The Terrapin men’s lacrosse team jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first half and never looked back, cruising to an eventual 15-6 win over UMBC in front of 2,836.
“We felt like if we could jump on them and seize control, that would be really in our favor,” Tillman said. “I was proud of our guys with how much energy they came out with.”
The No. 7 Terps (5-1) were paced by career nights from attackman Grant Catalino and midfielder Joe Cummings.
Catalino tied his career high in goals with six and points with seven, while Cummings notched a career high in goals with four. On his third score of the game — an elevator shot that beat UMBC’s goalie Adam Cohen over the shoulder — Catalino recorded his 100th career goal, becoming just the 12th Terp to break the 100-goal plateau. The last Terp to do so was Joe Walters, who played from 2003-06.
“He’s the ultimate professional. No one puts more prep-time in terms of shooting and extra work,” Tillman said of Catalino. “He’s a terrific captain, and he’s our leader at that end. Nothing that he does surprises me.”
“That’s an honor,” Catalino said of the 100-goal plateau. “Playing for a prestigious school like Maryland and to be able to put up goals like that, it’s an honor. But again, it’s a tribute to my team.”
The Terps dominated UMBC (1-4) in nearly every facet of play, and looked good on offense, defense and in transition. The Terps won the statistical battle in turnovers (20-15), groundballs (40-22), face-offs (13-11) and shots (30-27) and went a perfect 3-for-3 on the extra-man offense while holding UMBC 0-for-4 on their man-up opportunities.
Twelve Terps ended up recording a point with Jake Bernhardt (two goals), Ryan Young (two assists), Drew Snider (two assists) and Kevin Cooper (two assists) providing support behind the stellar outings from Catalino and Cummings.
On defense, the trio of Max Schmidt, Brett Schmidt and Ryder Bohlander combined to force six turnovers, while freshman goalkeeper Niko Amato had another great game in between the pipes, stopping 12 Retriever shots.
Late in the first quarter, Amato made the save of the year by diving across the crease and stopping a point-blank shot by a UMBC attackman that seemed like it was inevitably going in.
“I turned to my defenseman, and I was like ‘Are you serious?’” Catalino said of the impressive move by Amato. “That save was unbelievable. He’s a great goalie. You expect him to make saves like that.”
Despite going on a 4-1 run to end the game, the Retrievers never truly threatened the Terps, who now have just one day of rest before facing St. Joseph’s on Sunday.
The Terps hope the short turnaround will benefit them when back-to-back games become the norm during postseason play in April and May.
“This is the second time in two weeks that we’ve had to do this,” Catalino said. “It’s great practice for the ACC Tournament and Final Four – two places we hope to be in the championship at. So playing games like this will help us get ready for those.”
TERP NOTE: Attackman Travis Reed, who suffered a shoulder injury against Towson last weekend, did not play against UMBC. Tillman said he was optimistic about Reed’s status leading up to tonight’s game, but the 5-foot-9 senior, who has seven goals and six assists this season, didn’t suit up against the Retrievers.
Tillman said after the game that Reed will be on the sidelines again Sunday when the Terps play St. Joseph’s.
“He’s a little bit farther away,” Tillman said. “We’ll see how he does next week.”
Jakob Engelke is The Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s lacrosse beat reporter. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.