Maryland men’s lacrosse survives scare to beat Penn in overtime, 13-12

Much like last week’s game against Richmond, Maryland men’s lacrosse was able to sneak past Penn 13-12 in overtime.

The No. 3 Terps fell behind early, then took control of the game in the first half. They held a three-goal lead in the fourth quarter, but Penn scored four consecutive times to take a late lead. Logan Wisnauskas tied the game with 2:58 remaining in regulation, and Roman Puglise gave Maryland a sudden-death win in overtime.

Wisnauskas led the Terps with four goals, while Louis Dubick notched a hat trick. Jared Bernhardt and Bubba Fairman scored twice each. Penn received goals from nine different players, led by Adam Goldner’s three.

Danny Dolan did all he could again in this one, setting another career high in saves with 18. Penn led 30-25 in shots on goal and 46-41 in total shots, but the senior first-year starter held strong. When Maryland’s defense forced Dolan to be the last line of defense, he made save after save.

Austin Henningsen and Justin Shockey looked overmatched for most of the contest, combining to get just 6-of-27 on faceoffs for the day. We mentioned in this week’s preview that faceoffs would be a point of strength for Penn, but didn’t expect Penn head coach to roll with Hofstra transfer Kyle Gallagher, who finished 21-of-27 for the game.

In a stat that Maryland has held the advantage in the previous two games, Penn controlled ground balls, winning the battle 29-10. Penn face off specialist Kyle Gallagher grabbed 10 by himself, with freshman defense BJ Farrare following behind him with five.

Penn gave Maryland its all in the first half, dominating at the faceoff X and deploying a 10-man ride to jump out to a 4-1 lead early. The Terps eventually began to settle in themselves, scoring six unanswered goals to finish out the first half to get the score to 7-4. It was looking like Maryland would take all the momentum into halftime, but with five seconds left, a faceoff win leading to a Simon Mathias goal kept the lead at two and gave Penn some added juice.

The Terps kept the pressure on early in the second half, scoring two quick goals out of the gate to get the score to 9-5 and try and close the door on the Quakers. But Penn wasn’t going anywhere, scoring the next three goals to cut the Maryland lead to one.

The teams traded runs into the fourth, neither really taking control of the game. Despite Maryland going up 11-8, Penn came back with a three-goal run of their own to tie the game with 7:52 left in the game. Just five seconds later, Goldner gave the Quakers the lead. But Wisnauskas answered with just under three minutes left, and a massive save by Dolan in the closing seconds sent this one to overtime.

Maryland won possession off the face off to start overtime, and just 18 seconds later, a 20-yard rip from Puglise found the back of the net.

Maryland returns home Tuesday to host Colgate at 5 p.m. ET.

Three things to know

1. Another late collapse leads to another close victory. On the surface, Maryland is 3-0 on the season, but it hasn’t been pretty to this point. Like last game, it was another case of the Terps not playing their best lacrosse in the fourth quarter and allowing a lesser team a chance to steal a win. Call some of that part of early-season struggles, but head coach John Tillman certainly can’t be too thrilled with the way his team has looked the past two games.

2. Faceoffs were a major point of concern. Part of the reason for Penn being able to hang around and eventually take the lead in this one was Henningsen and Shockey’s inability to win a draw against Gallagher. Gallagher effortlessly pinched and popped his way to 21 wins on 27 attempts, leaving Maryland with no answers as to how to slow him down.

3. Danny Dolan was incredible. Dolan allowed 12 goals, but his defense wasn’t putting him in the best position most of the time. Penn easily got good looks on goal, and Dolan was up to task on 18 of those occasions, most notably saving the Terps from defeat on a point-blank shot. For everything Tillman still needs to sort out, goalkeeping is not one of them.