(Photo Courtesy of Maryland Athletics)
The Maryland Terrapins don’t rebuild, they reload. And that statement rung true in their season-opener at home against the defending SoCon champion High Point Panthers on Saturday afternoon.
Maryland thwarted High Point 21-13 to open the season with a bang.
The Terrapins shot out to a 4-0 lead and never seemed to look back, pushing ahead 6-1 at the end of the first quarter and 9-5 at the half. A 7-2 third quarter put things away for good as the Terrapins held a 16-7 lead entering the final stanza.
From the get-go, the Maryland offense showcased its depth, especially with its added talent. Cornell transfer Jonathan Donville put in the first goal of the day less than minute into the contest. Fellow transfers Keegan Khan and Owen Murphy, and fifth-year attackman and new No. 1 Logan Wisnauskas each scored during that initial run to get things started.
Wisnauskas ended the game with eight points off five goals and three assists to lead the way. Keegan Khan put up six points off four goals and two assists. That included a nasty, Sports Center Top-10 worthy, behind-the-back finish off a Wisnauskas that started the Terrapins five-goal run to finally burry things in the third.
Luke Weirman went 11-for-17 as the primary option at the dot for Maryland.
High Point saw Brayden Mayea have five goals while Asher Nolting dished out six assists and found the back of the net once for seven points.
Denver Holds off Utah
In Andrew McMinn’s debut with the Utah Utes, an upset over Bill Tierney’s Denver Pioneers looked very much like a possibility in a game that saw these two teams go back and forth from the opening whistle through the final buzzer.
Utah’s fast-paces style of play was able to gift them plenty of opportunities in transition and unsettled situations. In part that style helped the Utes take a 10-8 lead with 4:42 left in the third quarter off a sequence that saw a pair of poles work to get the score off a defensive stop.
Denver held an 8-6 lead at the half, seemingly having a positive play in their tool belt for every subsequent play from the Utes. A four-goal run from late in the third through early in the fourth helped the Pioneers regain control and take back the lead, 12-10.
Following a Tyler Bradbury goal with 1:24 remaining to cut the Denver lead back to one, the Utes won the ensuing faceoff and subsequently took a timeout. They would take a second with 41 seconds remaining, but still couldn’t convert as the Denver defense held strong to secure the victory.
Ted Sullivan (4G/2A) and JJ Sillstrop (4G/1A) led the Denver offense while Alec Stathakis went 18-for-31 (58%) at the dot. Cole French made 12 saves.
Utah was led by James Hyde with four goals and one assist. Tyler Bradbury had two goals and two assists for four points. Zion Dechesere made 10 saves in cage.
Mount St. Mary’s Upsets Navy
The first big upset of the season comes from the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers as they took down Navy 11-9 in Annapolis.
Two weird goals, including an own goal from Navy, helped give the Mountaineers some extra momentum, but it was the 21-save performance from sophomore goalie Griffin McGinley in his first career start that made all the difference. Navy outshot Mount St. Mary’s 50-41 in the contest and put 30 of those shots on cage, but McGinley was constantly there as the defense in front of him forced the Midshipmen to take a majority of their shots from outside.
Cormac Giblin led the way on offense for the Mountaineers with five goals, three of which came in the second half alone and were part of the Mountaineers’ 6-1 run from early in the third through early in the fourth that helped them jump ahead.
Dane Swanson and Patrick Skalniak each had five points off three goals and two assists for Navy. Pat Ryan made 16 saves in cage in his first career start.
Johns Hopkins Defeats Jacksonville
After leading just 6-5 at the half, the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays pulled away in the final two frames to secure the 11-8 victory over the visiting Jacksonville Dolphins.
The duo of Jack Keogh and Connor DeSimone led the way for the Blue Jays offense, combining for nine points (five goals.) Keogh had two goals and three assists for five points while DeSimone had a hat trick and an assist for four points on the day.
Owen McManus caused three turnovers and scooped up two ground balls to lead the way out in front of the cage for the Blue Jays while Josh Kirson had eight saves.
Max Waldbaum made his mark in his debut with the Dolphins, scoring four goals and adding one assist to lead the offense with five points. Jacob Greiner had a hat trick as the Dolphins’ second-leading scorer in the contest. Luke Millican had 17 saves in his Jacksonville debut. 10 of those saves came in the second half.
Other Notable Scores
- After trailing 3-0 after a slow first quarter of action, the Virginia Cavaliers put all the pieces together and pulled out a convincing 21-11 win at home over the Air Force Falcons. Connor Shellenberger led the way with seven points off two goals and five assists.
- Behind a six-point (5G/1A) outing from Mitch Bartolo in his Rutgers debut, the Scarlet Knights beat LIU 15-6.
- Penn State beat Lafayette 20-15 in a game that saw Jack Kelly, Kyle Aldridge, and Jack Traynor combine for 15 points.
- Mike Robinson had nine points (6G/3A) in Delaware’s 19-9 win over NJIT.
- Ohio State beat Detroit Mercy 18-7 in a contest that saw Jack Myers have eight points (5G/3A) and Justin Inacio go 18-for-21 at the dot.
Lacrosse Bucket 