(Photo Courtesy of Maryland Athletics)
With 1:59 remaining in the second quarter, Maryland’s John Geppert was handed a three-minute non-releasable penalty following a hit on Princeton defensive midfielder Beau Pederson. During the man-up stretch, which would carry over into the early stages of the third quarter, Chris Brown got a feed on the crease from Sam English and put past Logan McManey to cut the Maryland lead to 7-4 at the break.
Despite Maryland committing 19 turnovers, four penalties, failing two clears (both in third quarter), and getting outshot 47-45, the Tigers would never be able to cut into the Terrapins lead anymore.
Maryland killed off the rest of the penalty in the third quarter and outscored Princeton 4-2 in the frame and 6-4 in the final two frames to help secure the 13-8 victory and advance to the national title game for the second consecutive season.
Logan Wisnauskas led the Terrapins with four goals, three of which he put home in the second half. Keegan Khan had five points off three goals and two assists while Owen Murphy found the back of the net twice.
Wisnauskas’ effort gives him 203 career goals and makes him the all-time leading goal-scorer in program history. He is one of just six players to record at least 200 career goals in NCAA history.
Both of Murphy’s scores came consecutively within seven seconds of each other in the third quarter to help highlight and cap a four-goal Terrapins lead that pulled them ahead 11-4 midway through the frame.
While the Maryland offense got rolling as usual, it was an exceptional game from goalie Logan McNaney that made all the difference. McNaney stopped 12 of Princeton’s 16 shots on cage in the second half and ended the day with a career-high 21 saves.
SSDM Bubba Fairman (1G/4GB/4CT) and Ajax Zappitello (4CT/2GB) helped lead the way out in front of the cage for the Terrapins’ defense.
Luke Wierman went 13-for-22 (59%) at the facoff dot in what was a tough battle against Tyler Sandoval (55%).
Alexander Vardaro led Princeton with two goals.
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