Maryland men's lacrosse cruises to 13-5 win vs. Air Force to open 2025 NCAA Tournament

John Gugs
4 days ago
3 min read

After a disappointing finish to the Big Ten tournament, coming off a 14-10 loss to Ohio State, the Terps men’s lacrosse squad opened up NCAA tournament play hosting the 9-7 Air Force Falcons, who were coming off a first-round 14-9 win over Robert Morris.

The Terps were the overwhelming favorites in the game and they backed it up with their play on the field. The Terps dominated the game from start to finish never trailing in the game including an eight-goal run in the second and third quarter.

The Terps jumped on the Falcons quickly thanks to Daniel Kelly and Eric Spanos scoring a goal each within the first 3:02 of the game. Air Force would get their first goal of the game eight and a half minutes later as the game slowed down a bit, but the Terps would not let them get any momentum as Eric Spanos would net his second goal of the game with just 19 seconds left in the first quarter.

Like the first quarter, the Terps would get the scoring going quickly in the second quarter as Bryce Ford would find the back of the net just 34 seconds into it. Air Force would cut the Terps lead back to two with 6:37 left in the second quarter but it would be their last goal until 13:27 left in the fourth quarter.

Spanos, Kelly, Braen Erksa, Matthew Keegan, and Noah Armitage all recorded goals during the Terps' eight-goal run in the second and third quarters. Spanos alone scored four of the eight goals while the rest found the back of the net once during the Terps' run.

Once the backups started to come in for the Terps, Air Force would be able to score two goals in the fourth quarter to give them five goals on the day. Zach Whittier would also add a goal for the Terps to give them their 13th on the day to give the Terps the 13-5 win opening up NCAA tournament play.

Takeaways

The Good

After struggling against the Buckeyes, Logan McNaney had a bounce back game having 11 saves on 16 shots on goal. When McNaney is hot and seeing the ball well, the Terps defense is a very hard defense to score on.

The Good

The Falcons offense turned the ball over 14 times on the day. Half of the Falcons’ turnovers were caused by the Terps defense. Zach Goorno and Jack McDonald led the team with two caused turnovers each while Eric Kolar, AJ Larkin, Trace Davidson all had one caused turnover as well.

Needs Improvement

While the Terps still put up 13 goals and dominated the game, the offense still turned the ball over 14 times on the day. Winning the turnover battle is massive in the postseason and the fewer you commit as a team the better.

Three Stars

Eric Spanos

Spanos led the team with six goals on the day. All game long, Spanos used his size and strength to his advantage to get easy shots on goal all game long.

Logan McNaney

McNaney saved 11/16 shots on goal on the day having a 77% save percentage bouncing back in a massive way from his performance against Ohio State.

Jack McDonald

McDonald was tied for the lead in caused turnovers with two while also adding three ground balls and an assist to his name. The Terps offense is nearly unstoppable when they can get in transition with McDonald leading the way.

The Terps are set to face the Georgetown Hoyas at Navy Memorial Stadium in Annapolis on Sunday. The game is set to face-off at 2:30pm and will be airing on ESPNU.

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