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After a 16-3 rout of Mount Saint Mary's in their opener, Maryland faced some stiffer in-state competition Saturday against UMBC. After wins in 24 of the first 28 games in the all-time series between the two schools, the Terps had dropped four of six against the Retrievers. Those fortunes changed Saturday, as true freshman Matt Rambo scored his second straight hat trick, Mike Chanenchuk scored two goals with three assists, and the Terps won 14-3.
Maryland started out on the attack early, and freshman goalie Connor Gordon came through for the retrievers by stopping a group of attacks. Just a few minutes later, Jay Carlson scored on an unassisted goal, giving the Terps the early 1-0 lead.
At the start of the second quarter, star freshman Matt Rambo struck again, after a four-goal outing in the season opener against Mount Saint Mary's. Rambo took two shots in a row, with the second one finding the net unassisted, giving Maryland the 2-0 advantage.
Rambo's goal caused the floodgates to open for the Terps in the second period. Connor Cannizzaro scored from just outside the crease, and the Terps forced a holding penalty on the next possession. Rambo scored a powerplay goal on a lightning shot (assisted by Mike Chanenchuk), and Maryland scored off the next face-off on Carlson's second goal. Just a few minutes later, Joe LoCascio scored his second goal of the year, giving the Terps a 6-0 lead.
All told, Maryland scored five goals in a span of four minutes and 11 seconds, with two of them (Rambo and Carlson) separated by just 61 seconds.
Maryland opened the second half with six shots on their first possession, but none found their way home. After a crease violation by Cannizzaro, UMBC recovered and scored their first goal of the game. Pat Young got the shot past Niko Amato, off the assist by Jack Gannon, cutting the Maryland lead to 6-1.
The last time the Terps shut out an opponent in the first half was back in 2008, a game they lost to Navy 5-4. Determined not to let that happen again, Maryland answered UMBC's goal with one of their own, as Chanenchuk sent a bounce shot in to make it 7-1. Chanenchuk scored again just 36 seconds later, immediately expanding the lead to 8-1.
Gannon responded with a goal for the Retrievers, cutting the score to 8-2, and Zach Linkous scored after a slashing penalty on Brian Cooper to make it 8-3.
The Terps started out the fourth quarter with a powerplay goal, as Rustin Bryant scored his first goal of the year on an assist from Chanenchuk. A few minutes later, Rambo scored on Chanenchuk's third assist of the game -- giving the true freshman his second straight hat trick to start out his Terrapin career. Lucas Gradinger scored just a little more than a minute later, giving Maryland three quick goals to start the quarter and a dominating 11-3 lead.
Kevin Forster, Henry West and Tyler Adelsberger each scored late fourth quarter goals to pad the lead even further, as the Terps scored six unanswered goals in the final period, putting the game away at 14-3.
After two wins over in-state opponents by the combined score of 30-6, Maryland faces an extremely tough road test at Syracuse next Saturday.
