Mike Preston: Maryland men’s lacrosse joins conversation of best team ever by holding off Cornell, 9-7, in NCAA final | COMMENTARY
The University of Maryland solidified its claim as one of the best men’s lacrosse teams in modern history by defeating No. 7 seed Cornell, 9-7, in the NCAA Division I championship game played before a crowd of 22,184 at the Pratt and Whitney Stadium on Rentschler Field on Monday.
The No. 1 ranked Terps (18-0) had been dominant all season and played only four games where they had won by fewer than four goals, but few thought that they could dismantle the field in the postseason. They did, except for when they started to wilt in the heat midway through the third quarter of the championship game. The Terps once led 9-2 and led by five goals at the half and six after three quarters on their way to becoming the first national champion to go undefeated since Virginia in 2006.
Maryland accomplished several missions this spring. The Terps avenged last year’s 17-16 championship game loss to Virginia played here last season and have won 35 of their last 36 games. Since the middle of the season, Maryland has been compared with two great teams, both unbeaten: the 1990 Syracuse squad and the 2006 Virginia Cavaliers.
It’s actually hard to say which of those teams were the greatest but there could be no conversations until Maryland won the national championship.
Well, let the conversations begin.
Current Maryland players like attackman Logan Wisnauskas, midfielder Anthony DeMaio, defensemen Brett Makar, Ajax Zappitello and goalie Logan McNaney have now cemented their legacies with players from other great teams. The win also erased some bad memories for Maryland coach John Tillman, who won a national title in 2017 but lost five other title games since becoming head coach in 2011.
Cornell, which has peaked in the Big Red’s postseason, was expected to provide Maryland with a stiff challenge, especially after defeating Rutgers, 17-10, in a semifinal game, but Maryland shut down the Big Red’s offense for most of the game.
Wisnauskas had two goals and two and two assists and DeMaio finished with four goals and an assist for Maryland, which had assists on all nine goals. McNaney had 17 saves, including 10 in the first half and a pair late to keep Cornell from making the score any closer than two.
Cornell made it close with three straight goals to open the fourth period by attackmen Michael Long and Spencer Wirtheim and midfielder Hugh Kelleher, with Witheim’s coming with 7:27 left in the fourth quarter to pull Cornell within 9-6. Attackman John Piatelli scored with 35.3 seconds left to cut Maryland’s lead to 9-7, but Maryland won the ensuing faceoff and was able to hang on and win, which resulted in a big celebration by Maryland on the field.
Cornell went ahead, 1-0, on a shot by sophomore attackman C.J. Kirst that McNaney should have saved with 7:28 left in the first period. The slow tempo favored the Big Red, but it was the only time McNaney had a setback in the first quarter. He made point-blank saves on shots from attackman Billy Coyle and two from Kirst.
Kirst was basically the Big Red’s offense in the first half and scored off a spin move just inside the restraining line with 11:49 left in the second quarter to cut Maryland’s lead to 5-2. Cornell outshot Maryland in the first half but the Terps were more opportunistic, and that happens when a team has players like Wisnauskas and DeMaio.
Wisnauskas, on a feed from middie Jack Brennan, tied the score at 1 with 5:47 left in the first. DeMaio scored nearly two minutes later to make it 2-1 and then again with 1:12 on an extra-man opportunity to push Maryland’s lead to 4-1 by the end of the quarter.
Long pole middie Own Prybylski scored off a fast break on an assist with DeMaio as Maryland took a 5-1 advantage early in the second. DeMaio and Wisnauskas scored goals in the final five minutes of the second quarter, giving Maryland a 7-2 halftime lead.
Maryland had eight turnovers in the first half and the Big Red won six of 11 faceoffs, which kept them within striking distance before their late rally fell a little bit short.
