Preview: Maryland men's lacrosse look to bounce back in big way in final non-conference road trip

John Gugs
Mar 6
4 min read

#12 Maryland (1-3) at Delaware (1-4)

Where: Delaware Stadium, Newark, DE

When: Friday March 6th, 7PM

TV: ESPN+

Betting: Maryland -10.5, O/U 23.5 (DraftKings)

After going on their first three game losing streak in the John Tillman era thanks to an 11-8 loss to the #1 ranked Fighting Irish, the Terps head into their second to last non-conference game as a massive favorite and will look to get back in the win column to right the ship on what has not been a strong start to the season.

The Fighting Blue Hens of Delaware are led by Ben Deluca who has a career record of 73-44 through nine seasons. Delaware has only faced the Terps once under DeLuca which was last year’s 14-3 victory for the Terps. Delaware, like the Terps, are off to a rough start to the season and will be looking to turn things round before getting to conference play.

On offense, Delaware is led by their starting attack line which is all tied for the team lead with nine points each. Bennett Parmer is the team's primary ball handler and leads the team in assists with five while adding four goals to his name. John McCurry and Brendan Powers both lead the team with eight goals while also both having an assist to their name. While Delaware returned nearly all of their offensive production from last season, their offense has very much struggled to get going in their first five games averaging just seven goals a game. One thing that has killed Delaware this season is their man up offense. In ten opportunities, they have yet to score a man up goal this season. Against a defense like the Terps that has seemed to struggle with communication away from the ball and who’s short stick defensive midfielders have also seemed to struggle with their on ball defense this season, this should be a game that the Terps defense can gain some confidence with a shut down performance heading into a big rivalry game next week and with conference play right after.

On defense for Delaware, they are led by Nick Cowen. Cowen is a senior close defender and leads the team in caused turnovers with seven while also being second on the team in ground balls with 13. Defensively, Delaware has struggled massively to cause turnovers and give their offense extra possessions. Through five games, the Blue Hens’ opponents only turn the ball over an average of 15.4 times per game and are scoring at an average of 12.8 goals per game. A big reason for this is the Delaware goalie Aidan Koff saving just 47.5% of the shots on goal he has faced this season. With Delaware struggling as a whole on defense, it has been hard for them as a team to string together stops to help the offense back into games. Delaware also only has won 43.5% of their face-offs to start the year which can massively hinder their chances at pulling off any comeback wins.

Three things to watch out for

Does Eric Spanos play?

Last week we saw Eric Spanos miss the game against Notre Dame after he got hurt late in warm ups. While the offense as a whole has not looked great the last three weeks, they looked their worst last week with Spanos out. While Delaware is a game the Terps should win handily and a game that lots of different dudes should get reps, not having a leader like Spanos on the field could hold the offense back once again.

Could we see a switch at goalie?

Last week, Terps goalie Brian Ruppel started well with five saves on six shots on goal in the first quarter. However, once the second quarter hit, Ruppel made just six saves and allowed ten goals in the last 45 minutes of the game. Head coach John Tillman has not been afraid to make a change when needed before and Ruppel enters week five with a save percentage of just 47.6% on the year. Could this be the week a switch happens or does Tillman keep riding with Ruppel and hope a game against a subpar offense like Delaware can give him some confidence heading into the most important part of the Terps season.

How does the defense bounce back?

In the last three weeks, the Terps defense has massively struggled with off ball communication and the SSDM’s for the most part have been picked on a lot on-ball, causing the Terps to slide and leave players open. With a lot of new faces on the defensive side of the field, the Terps could very well use this game to gain some confidence and build chemistry on the field heading into Virginia next week and conference play right after. If the Terps defense is to turn things around, their communication will need to massively improve to try and make Ruppel’s job or whoever is in at goalie easier.

IBG prediction: Both teams have massively struggled to start the season with just one win each through five weeks of the season. However, the Terps three losses are by a total of six points to the current #1, #3, and #10 ranked teams. Meanwhile, Delaware’s four losses are to teams with a combined record of 12-9, highest ranked team being University of Pennsylvania at #18, and have a total goal differential of -29. Despite their struggles, this should very well be a bounce back game for the Terps as a whole that they should dominate in every aspect of the game. I expect lots of players to get playing time in this game with the Terps eventually winning in a 15-5 blowout if Spanos is to not play. If Spanos does play however, I think the Terps offense could potentially put up 20 goals for the first time since 2022.

The Terps are looking to bounce back in a big way in their last Friday night game of the season as they travel to Newark. The Terps are looking to avoid their first four game losing streak under John Tillman and a 1-4 start for the first time in program history. The game is set to face-off at 7PM and will be airing on ESPN+.

Related Links