Maryland men's lacrosse advances to ninth national title game under John Tillman, dominates Syracuse in 14-8 win

John Gugs
4 days ago
4 min read

The only time Syracuse was in the game was the beginning when they scored first. Maryland men's lacrosse then rattled off eight straight goals and never looked back in their dominant 14-8 win over Syracuse in the national semifinal game.

The game started off with Syracuse scoring within the first minute of the game. However the game would slow down and it would be another 6:41 before the Terps would finally find the back of the net thanks to Eric Spanos. After Spanos opened the scoring, the Terps would rattle off eight straight goals holding the high-powered Syracuse offense scoreless for 26:54 in the second half, the 11th time the Terps defense had held an opponent scoreless for 20+ minutes this season.

In the first quarter, Syracuse played sloppy and made several mistakes, but in the second quarter, it was the Terps defense that made Syracuse not be able to find the back of the net or get many shots off. The Terps took an 8-2 lead heading into the halftime break. The Terps defense had allowed less shots on goal (seven) than the Terps offense scored in the first half.

Logan McNaney finished the first half with five saves only allowing the two goals. A big reason the Terps were able to keep pulling ahead was winning face-offs. Shea Ketthler and Jonah Carrier went a combined 6/11 in the first half from the face-off dot. John Mullen, who is one of the best face-off players in the country had a 71% face-off win rate this season and the combination of Keethler and Carrier were able to win the matchup all game long finishing the day going 14/24.

In the second half, Braden Erksa and Spanos got the scoring going, giving the Terps an eight-goal lead, however Syracuse would gain a little life and would go on a three-goal run of their own. Syracuse was a team that had several late comebacks this season, including coming back from being down 8-2 against Harvard in the first round. The only difference was they were facing the second-best scoring defense in the country in the Terps defense with Will Schaller and Logan McNaney leading the way this time.

The Terps would keep the scoring going and never let Syracuse gain any life after giving up the three-goal run. McNaney would have nine saves in the second half, keeping up his performance from the first half. Both teams would score three goals each in both the third and fourth quarters as the Terps would cruise to a 14-8 wi,n advancing to their ninth national championship since John Tillman took over in the summer of 2010.

John Tillman is now 8-0 against Syracuse in his career and 32-5 in NCAA tournament games that are not the national championship. The Terps will look to win their third ring under Tillman in what is a rematch of the Terps 9-7 win of the 2022 national championship game over Cornell. The game is set to face off at 1pm ET on Memorial Day and will be airing on ESPN.

Takeaways

The Great

The Terps' defense was causing havoc all day. Outside of the three-goal run, Syracuse was never able to find a rhythm on offense and cut into the Terps' lead. The Terps shut down the Orange’s top two scorers in Joey Spallina and Owen Hiltz to just two total points between the two.

The Good

Against one of the top face-off guys in the country, if not the best in John Mullen, the combination of Keethler and Carrier helped the Terps never let Syracuse get any life going 14-of-23 combined on the day. Keethler went 9/12 alone on the day with three ground balls while Carrier went 5-of-11 with two ground balls. The Terps are a hard team to beat when they win the extra possessions thanks to their pace of play and great defense.

Needs Improvement

The one thing that did not go the Terps way today was the ground ball advantage. Syracuse won the ground ball battle 35-31 in the Terps win. While they were able to overcome it today, the Terps might not be so lucky when they face the top seeded Big Red on Monday afternoon.

Three Stars

Logan McNaney

McNaney finished the day with 14 saves with just seven goals against, having a 67% save percentage on the day. McNaney also added four ground balls to his name. The Terps have now made every single national championship when McNaney has played a full season.

Eric Spanos

Spanos finished the day leading the Terps with five point,s scoring four goals and adding an assist to his name. Spanos also picked up a ground ball in the win.

Shea Keethler

Keethler dominated at the face-off dot, going 9-of-12 with three ground balls picked up. Keethler also had a shot on an unsettled opportunity after a clean face-off win but missed the net.

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