(Photo Courtesy of NCAA)
For the sixth time under John Tillman, the Maryland Terrapins will be playing on Memorial Day after taking down Duke 14-5 in a battle between two of the sport’s most dominant programs of the past decade.
Maryland moved on to face Virginia, who beat North Carolina 12-11 in the first semifinal of the day, as they fight for their fourth NCAA title and the chance to be the first team since 2006 Virginia to go undefeated.
Jared Bernhardt bookended the scoring for Maryland, putting in the Terrapins’ first goal of the game just under four minutes into the contest and put in their final goal of the game to close out their impressive performance with an exclamation point. The fifth-year senior and Tewaaraton finalist ended the day with seven points off five goals and two assists.
Bernhardt’s performance saw him reach 200 career goals and break the Maryland single-season points record with 94 points.
In addition to Bernhardt’s impressive performance, Anthony DeMaio had four points off two goals and two assists and Logan McNaney made 17 saves. Additionally, Justin Shockey went 11-for-21 at the faceoff dot and scored a goal.
Dyson Williams and Michael Sowers each had two goals for Duke.
Following a defensive-heavy first quarter that saw Maryland take a 2-1 lead, the Terrapins turned on the jets. Maryland outscored Duke 6-2, which included a quarter-ending four-goal run, to push ahead 8-3 at the half. Combined with the suffocating defense of Nick Grill, Brett Makar, and Matt Rahill, Shockey’s work at the dot, and the Maryland offense that continued to slice the Duke defense, the Terrapins outscored the Blue Devils 3-1 in each of the final two quarters (6-2 in the second half) to secure the dominating victory.
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