In a game where there were ten lead changes and the largest lead by either team was two, it was Johns Hopkins who came out on top thanks to a late turnover by the Terps’ offense.
Maryland got the scoring going thanks to a goal by Daniel Maltz, his first of four on the day, as the two teams traded eight lead changes in the in-state battle.
Freshman Braden Erksa finished with a career-high five points including four goals in the loss. The two teams traded two-goal runs throughout the first half with Erksa’s first and second goals of the night gave Maryland a 5-4 lead heading into the locker room.
Both offenses would find a bit of a groove and break apart each other’s defense to open the second half, though, as the two teams combined for ten total goals in the third quarter. Hopkins started the second half off with two more goals while they were in transition giving them the lead back. But, like the rest of the game beforehand, the Terps would get two goals of their own to take the lead right back. Nick Redd scored his first goal of the season on a transition goal to tie the game up. Then it was Erksa for his third of the day that gave the Terps the lead. Hopkins would then tie it back up but the Terps would get the lead back once again thanks to Erksa scoring his fourth goal of the day. For the fourth time in the game, Hopkins would go on a two-goal run to take the lead back before Maltz would tie the game back up. Hopkins would then get a goal with just 14 seconds left in the third quarter to give them the 10-9 lead heading into the final quarter and wound up giving them a big momentum boost.
Pretty lacrosse!!!
Maltz finishes it off and completes a hat trick
All tied up at 10-10 #BeTheBest pic.twitter.com/istLm5b4i6
— Maryland Lacrosse (@TerpsMLax) April 22, 2023
Maltz would tie the game up at ten for his third goal of the day with just over 13 minutes left in regulation. However, Hopkins’ defense pressured Maryland into a nearly 13 minute long scoring drought. Hopkins took advantage to score to go-ahead goal with just under four minutes left. it was not until 54 seconds left in the game that Maltz would get his fourth tally on the day to make it 12-11. The Terps now had the momentum after getting the late goal and winning the ensuing face-off to set themselves up for a game-tying goal. Head coach John Tillman called his last time out to try and set something up for the offense to take the lead. But with just 20 seconds left in the game, a Hopkins defender would wind up poke checking the Terps’ attackman that would cause a pass to sail over the intended target. Hopkins then would just wind out the rest of the clock to seal the game and take the crab trophy back to Baltimore for the first time since 2019.
With the loss, Hopkins earned themselves the two seed in the conference tournament and a share of the regular season conference title. Maryland dropped to a 4-2 conference record and will be the third seed in the conference tournament.
Maryland will host Rutgers on Saturday, April 29th at 8 PM for a quarterfinal game. If the Terps beat Rutgers, it will set up a rematch against Johns Hopkins in the semifinals.
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