Maryland men’s lacrosse moved to 9-0 on Saturday afternoon following a 20-12 win over Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Michigan found the back of the net to kick off the game’s scoring, marking just the second time this season that the Terps’ opponent scored first, but a 7-1 second-quarter run helped Maryland reclaim control as they took a 9-5 lead into the locker room. Maryland opened the second half on fire thanks to a pair of goals from John Geppert within the first 30 seconds before Logan Wisnauskas and Keegan Khan found the back of the net, pushing the lead to 13-5 midway through the third. Michigan responded with three unanswered goals to cut the lead to five, but it was the closest they’d get as Maryland remained perfect.
Still, head coach John Tillman saw room for improvement despite the win. Luke Wierman helped give the Terps a faceoff advantage once again, edging Michigan 19-17, but the 12 Maryland turnovers left room for concern from Tillman. “I’ll never question the effort these guys, they played hard. I just didn’t feel like at times we played smart as we could,” Tillman added postgame. “And the reason I say that is we just have a lot of veteran guys and at times today, we just got a little sloppy. Road games are tough, there’s always a different vibe and it’s not easy for the guys but I just felt like we were sloppy at times.
Owen Murphy’s four goals led the Terps’ offense while Logan Wisnauskas, Jonathan Donville and Keegan Khan all notched three goals each, though ten different Terps scored at least one goal. Wisnauskas also registered three assists on the day to give him 288 in his career, now just two points away from Jared Bernhardt's all-time leading 290 points, while the fifth-year senior has now recorded at least one point in all of his 66 games as a Terp.
Maryland will look to move to 10-0 this season when they return to College Park and host fifth-ranked Rutgers next Sunday, April 10. Game is set for 7 PM on the Big Ten Network.
“I just think we got to get back to some fundamental stuff,” Tillman added. “Just getting back to some of the things that we do, some basic stuff and with a longer week I think that’ll allow us to do it. You’re looking ahead obviously to some of the teams we’re going to play, so we’re going to have to work on transition defense, going from offense to defense and some of the sub stuff and things of that nature and obviously make sure that we’re buttoned up on some things.”