Maryland men’s lacrosse routs Penn, 13-6

On an unseasonably warm evening in College Park, Maryland men’s lacrosse used some hot first-half shooting to build an early lead and defeat Penn, 13-6.

The win was John Tillman’s 100th career victory at Maryland, joining the tag team of Jack Faber and Al Heagy and Dick Edell as the only coaches to hit the century mark in College Park.

Logan Wisnauskas led the show on offense with a career high five goals, and was one of five Maryland players to score multiple points. Jared Bernhardt chipped in two goals and two assists, and Bubba Fairman also had two goals and recorded his first career assist. Connor Kelly and Tim Rotanz each had a goal and an assist.

Senior captain Bryce Young returned and the made the start on defense, which looked much better than it did against High Point. It didn’t allow as many clear lanes, and Penn looked hesitant to take on either Young or Curtis Corley without a pick or switch. Dan Morris was also excellent in the cage, making 13 saves on 19 shots on goal.

Once again, Maryland got off to another fast start. Rotanz bounced one pass Penn goalie Reed Junkin to open up the scoring three and a half minutes in, and Wisnauskas added a goal a minute later. The Quakers had opportunities early in the opening frame, but couldn’t put many shots on target. When Penn finally put some shots on target, Morris made some impressive saves. Adam DiMillo padded the Terps’ lead when he scored off a nice feed from Kelly and then Fairman scored to push the lead to 4-0.

Jared Bernhardt joined the scoring party 50 seconds into the second quarter, but Penn responded with two straight goals. Unlike against High Point, Maryland would not let its opponent get any closer.

The Quakers got chippy around the goal, resulting in two man-up opportunities. Wisnauskas scored on both for his second career hat trick, and then added another goal on a low side-arm shot with less than a minute left in the first half. Anthony DeMaio scored his first career goal in between Wisnauskas’s second and third goal of the run, and the Terps had a 9-2 halftime lead.

Maryland was more patient on offense in the second half, looking for the best shot instead of a good shot. It scored one goal in the first 22 minutes in the first half before scoring three in less than three minutes in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

The Terps now have 12 days before hosting No. 8 Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish have been Maryland’s kryptonite recently, winning the last four matchups.

Three things to know

1. This was Maryland’s most complete win of the season. Four days after their sloppiest outing of the year, the Terps turned in their best performance Wednesday night. They can still clean up some things, but it was encouraging to see them bounce back from a sloppy game over the weekend.
2. Some personnel tweaks were made. Having Young back in the starting lineup wasn’t the only change for Maryland. Colin Giblin started at attack in place of DeMaio, and junior Will Snider saw time on the second line. Kelly and Rotanz also played both ways more than usual.
3. Justin Shockey took over at the X. After Austin Henningsen won just two of five faceoffs in the first quarter, the freshman came in and took every faceoff the rest of the way, winning 11 of 17. It’s too early to say if Shockey will take over for good or if the coaching staff will rely on the better matchup like last season.