Just another walk in the dog park - Terps trounce Terriers 18-8

In biology when terrapins and terriers are on land, terriers are faster - no contest. In women's lacrosse when Terrapins and Terriers are on the field, Terrapins are faster - no contest. In their 18-8 win over Boston University, the Terps scored early and they scored often. In moving to a perfect 3-0 in the young season, they buried the Terriers in a deep, deep hole from which there was no escape.

Taylor Cummings stepped into the circle and Maryland controlled the opening draw. Thirty seconds later, Brooke Griffin initiated an attack from behind the goal, launched a low shot and with 29:26 to play in the first half, Maryland led 1-0.

Taylor Cummings stepped into the circle and Maryland controlled the second draw. On this possession, the Terps' patience lulled the Terriers into a false sense of security. Yes, Maryland needed almost a minute to register the second score of the game. This one came when Griffin found Kelly McPartland in space along the right alley and McPartland tickled the twine with a high shot to the far post.

Taylor Cummings stepped into the circle and Maryland controlled the third draw. On this possession, Halle Majorana drew a foul but her free position shot hit the post. BU failed to clear and on the counter, Cummings found Griffin cutting down the center of the field for an easy look and a 3-0 Maryland lead. Sensing a pattern here?

Actually, though controlling the draw would be the pattern for most of the game, even when Maryland sent someone other than Cummings to the circle, (the Terps finished with a 21-7 edge) it was briefly broken after the Terps took that 3-0 lead. Boston controlled the next two draws scoring on their first possession but launching an uncovered shot on the second. McPartland made them pay for that oversight taking the restart form end to end racing through and past the BU defense before scoring on a shot similar to her first goal. The score put the Terps up 4-1 with 22:47 to play and initiated a string of eight consecutive goals over the next sixteen minutes.

Those goals went like this: Erin Collins scored on a free position shot (5-1). Fifty-five seconds later, Kristen Lamon scored on a pass from Beth Glaros (6-1). Thirty eight seconds after that, Cummings scored the first of her four goals on the day by way of a free position shot (7-1). The game clock ticked off another twenty-five seconds when Griffin notched her hat trick with the assist going to Morgan Torggler (8-1). The pace of Maryland's scoring slowed to an absolute crawl as nearly two and a half minutes of game time elapsed between goals eight and nine. Freshman Zoe Stukenberg took matters into her own crosse and scored an unassisted goal with 17:06 remaining in the half. That's five goals in five minutes and forty-one seconds, folks.

If the game seemed slow with two and a half minutes between Terrapins' goals, the seven plus minutes of game time that elapsed before Taylor Cummings scored Maryland's tenth goal seemed absolutely glacial. McPartland closed out the Terps' first half scoring by completing her hat trick with six and a half minutes to go. The Terriers bounced back to score the final two goals of the half and trailed 11-3 at halftime.

"it's a challenge when you go into a game with a good lead at halftime," Coach Cathy Reese said. "We want to make sure that we don't lose any of that fire so we step on the field to start the second half and we want to make sure that the players are tuned in, focused, and disciplined. Sometimes you can lose focus and start to force the ball a little bit more." The Terps were up to the challenge as they unleashed an offensive barrage that must have had the Terriers feeling as though they were chasing their tails. Beth Glaros picked up the opening draw of the second half on one hop, sprinted down the field and scored just 12 seconds into the period. Not to be outdone, Cummings picked up the ball controlling the next draw and netted a goal giving the Terps a 13-3 lead just, you guessed it, 12 seconds after Glaros scored. The midfielders flipped on the next two goals with Cummings scoring first on a free position and Glaros doing the same. Fourteen to three. Fifteen to three.

Maryland attacked again but BU goalie Caroline Meegan, who finished with twelve saves for the game, penned Griffin's shot in her goalkeeper's kennel. However, the Terriers failed to clear giving the redshirt junior another opportunity. This time, she didn't miss joining Cummings in the four goal club for the day. Junior Taylor Salandra registered her first goal of the season and the Terps' seventeenth of the game on one of the nicer dodges coming from the left as she faked and the blew past her defender before ripping the net. After BU scored to close to within thirteen, freshman Morgan Torggler scored the first goal of her Terrapins career.

Leading 18-4 with sixteen minutes to play and another game on Saturday, Maryland coach Cathy Reese called off the dogs, er, Terrapins and the Terriers' starters ran off four straight goals against a collection of players that probably doesn't spend much time working as a unit.

The Terps now take to the road for games at Penn State and Hofstra followed by their ACC opener at Duke before returning home to face William & Mary on the fifth of March.