No. 7 Maryland men’s lacrosse falls short in 9-8 loss to No. 13 Johns Hopkins

John Tillman and No. 7 Maryland men’s lacrosse could not have pictured a more disastrous second quarter.

After leveling the score in the waning moments of the first period on Saturday, it quickly went awry for the Terps. No. 13 Johns Hopkins buried a trio of goals within a four-minute span early in the second quarter, and Maryland simply didn’t have an answer.

Eight first-half turnovers didn’t help either. Silly mistakes — players losing their footing and dropped passes — hindered the Terps’ second-quarter offense. That sloppiness resulted in Maryland’s second scoreless period of the season.

While the Terps showed life in the second half, a three-goal halftime deficit was too much to overcome. Maryland suffered a 9-8 defeat to Johns Hopkins, ending its bid to claim an outright Big Ten regular season title.

Despite trailing 5-2 at the break, Maryland never wavered. After Leo Johnson’s third goal of the game, the Terps had a couple chances to force overtime following Henry Dodge’s faceoff win.

Maryland fired three shots in the final 40 seconds, the first two never troubling the cage. But the Terps had one golden opportunity late. Chris Lyons was left open with nine seconds left in the game, but his shot bounced off the post and into the corner of the field, sealing Maryland’s heartbreaking loss.

The result set up a four-way tie atop the Big Ten standings; tiebreakers dropped the Terps to third in the conference. Maryland will now have to play in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.

The atmosphere inside Homewood Field was electric heading into the 120th edition of “The Rivalry. Blue and red decked the bleachers as fans awaited the most highly-anticipated conference matchup of the year.

But it became quickly clear that goals were going to be hard to come by — a scoreless opening nine minutes evidenced that.

Instead, the goalkeepers showed out early on. Brian Ruppel snatched the first four shots sent in his direction, three of which occurred in a five-minute period. The senior netminder weathered the early onslaught to help keep Johns Hopkins off the board.

Maryland’s offense didn’t fare any better. Despite the ball quickly swinging around the perimeter, the Terps couldn’t break through the Blue Jays’ stout defense. Even when Maryland got inside, relentless stick pressure continuously jarred the ball loose.

But once Johns Hopkins netted the opening goal, the scoring quickly picked up. Blue Jays midfielders Jameson Smith and Jimmy Ayers beat Ruppel on consecutive possessions to open up a 2-0 lead within 41 seconds.