Maryland men’s lacrosse falls in national championship vs. Cornell, 13-10

After advancing to their ninth national championship thanks to a 14-8 win over Syracuse, the Terps would wind up losing in back to back national championships.This year losing to the top seeded Cornell Big Red 13-10. 

Maryland was never able to have control of the game and never led, facing deficits of three goals multiple times including at the final whistle. In the fourth quarter, the Terps were able to cut the deficit to one with two straight goals, but would wind up turning the ball over four straight times to end the game and would never be able to tie the game up.

The game started off slow like many expected. Cornell struck first but the Terps and Bryce Ford answered about three minutes later. Cornell would score with just over a minute remaining in the first quarter to take the lead into the second quarter.

In the second quarter, the scoring would pick up a lot with both teams scoring four goals a piece. Eric Spanos would score two goals while Daniel Kelly and Jack Shultz would also find the back of the net. Both offenses were able to find a groove for the most part in the second quarter and were starting to make both defenses slide and switch to get better matchups.

In the second half, the scoring would slow down yet again, however, Cornell would extend their lead before heading into the fourth quarter. Braden Erksa and Zach Whittier would find the back of the net for the Terps but Cornell’s offense would find the back of the net three times in the third to keep momentum on their side. The Terps defense was starting to let CJ Kirst, Cornell’s top scorer and the likely Tewaaraton winner of this season, get whatever he wanted. Kirst scored all of Cornell’s three goals in the third quarter and nothing the Terps were doing was stopping him.

In the fourth quarter, Cornell would score to extend their lead back to three and make it a 9-6 game. However, Erksa and Elijah Stobaugh would both find the back of the net to cut the Cornell lead to just one making it a 10-9 game with 9:23 to go. The Terps had momentum on their side with a chance to tie the game but this would be the closest the Terps would be to a lead the rest of the game. The Terps offense started to fall apart in the final frame, turning the ball over six times in the fourth quarter, which is the same amount of times they did in the first three quarters combined. The Terps defense got a few stops but the Terps failed three clears in the fourth quarter and it just made the defense get tired having to constantly defend the best offense in the country in Cornell. Cornell would capitalize on the Terps mistake and extend the lead back to three before Whittier would get his second goal of the game to cut the Cornell lead back to two with 1:22 left in the game. The Terps would win the next face-off but would turn the ball over due to a hold call on Kelly right after giving the ball back to Cornell where CJ Kirst would get his sixth goal of the game with an empty netter and would put the nail in the coffin for the Terps to give Cornell the 13-10 win.

With the loss, John Tillman’s attention will now turn to the offseason to retool the roster and gear up for getting back to the national championship in 2026 to try and have a happier ending next season. 

Takeaways

The Good

The Terps face-off guys of Shea Keether and Jonah Carrier won the face-off battle today, going a combined 15/27 on the day. Whenever you are a team that is trailing, winning the face-off battle is one of the best things you can do to help your offense get back into the game. 

Needs Improvement

Cornell’s offense only turned the ball over eight total times the entire game. While Cornell is a great offense, it is hard to come back into a game if you are not able to cause and force turnovers to give the ball back to your offense. 

The Ugly

The Terps cut the lead to one early on in the fourth quarter. The defense was getting stops but when you go 3/6 on clears with six total turnovers in one quarter alone, you are going to set your defense and your team up for failure. The defense started to get tired at the end of the game and Cornell took advantage to ice the game and put it out of the Terps’ reach. The fourth quarter collapse in this game was very uncharacteristic of a Maryland Lacrosse and John Tillman led team.

Three Stars

Eric Spanos

Spanos led the team in scoring with four points total off of two goals and two assists in the losing effort. Spanos also picked up two ground balls with one nearly leading to a goal right before the halftime buzzer.

Jonah Carrier

Carrier went 11/19 from the face-off dot today going 57% and was a massive reason for the Terps success at the face-off. Carrier picked up five ground balls as well today.

AJ Larkin

For the most part today, Larkin was matched up with Cornell’s top offensive midfielder in Hugh Kelleher and held him to zero points on the day. Larkin also had three ground balls picked up and assisted Daniel Kelly in the second quarter to tie the game up at two.