No. 8 Maryland men’s lacrosse pummels No. 19 Rutgers, 12-2, to claim share of Big Ten title

Q: How did Maryland men's lacrosse perform against Rutgers?

Maryland men's lacrosse won decisively against Rutgers with a score of 12-2.

Q: What does Maryland's victory over Rutgers mean for their Big Ten title chances?

The victory ensures Maryland at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season championship and they can claim it outright with a win against Johns Hopkins.

Q: How many Big Ten championships has Maryland men's lacrosse won since 2015?

Maryland men's lacrosse has won seven Big Ten championships since 2015.

Q: When and where will Maryland play Johns Hopkins for the Big Ten title?

Maryland will play Johns Hopkins on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Homewood Field in Baltimore.

(Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun/TNS)

COLLEGE PARK — Look who’s back.

After a surprisingly slow start by program standards, No. 8 Maryland men’s lacrosse has worked its way to the top of the Big Ten standings after walloping No. 19 Rutgers, 12-2, on Saturday night before an announced 4,002 at SECU Stadium.

With the victory, the Terps (6-4, 3-1 Big Ten) captured at least a share of the conference’s regular-season championship, which is their league-leading seventh crown since 2015. The next-closest school is Johns Hopkins, with three, and Maryland can claim the title outright by defeating the No. 10 Blue Jays on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Homewood Field in Baltimore.

The Terps entered Saturday’s game tied with Johns Hopkins and No. 11 Penn State for the Big Ten lead. But the Blue Jays (7-4, 2-2) were edged, 7-6, by No. 14 Ohio State (9-3, 2-2), and the Nittany Lions (6-5, 2-2) were knocked off, 9-8, by unranked Michigan (5-7, 2-2).

“The kids have given us great effort all year,” said coach John Tillman, who was hoisted on the shoulders of several football players who attended the game. “Very invested in practice. It’s just sometimes our execution isn’t quite where it wants to be or as consistent as we would like, but it’s never lacking in how much these guys care.”

Maryland’s return to relevancy took a longer-than-expected path. Entering the season ranked No. 1, the team dropped its last three games in February — to ranked opponents in No. 6 Syracuse, No. 3 Princeton and No. 2 Notre Dame — and then opened its conference schedule by getting doused, 10-6, by Penn State on March 21.

Since then, the Terps thumped the Wolverines by six goals on March 28, nipped the Buckeyes in overtime on April 4, and clobbered the Scarlet Knights. Over that stretch, they have shored up their defense (keeping all three opponents under 10 goals compared with only one in the first seven games) and improved their faceoff rate (65% versus 60%).

Graduate student attackman Eric Spanos conceded that the early hiccups were humbling.

“It’s definitely not how you draw up the start of a season,” he said. “But like Coach said, we just stuck together. We knew everything we had was all we needed. Coach did a great job – all of our coaches, everyone involved – of just keeping us on the right path. Every day, just trying to get better and be the best every day that we could. That’s the only thing we could do. We couldn’t sit and dwell on a loss or sit and dwell on a win. It was just, ‘All right, on Monday, we’re just going to work to be our best. On Tuesday, we’re going to work to be our best, and just keep going.’”

Against a Rutgers squad that lost sophomore faceoff specialist John Scarelli (53.9% and 34 ground balls) in a 9-8 win against Johns Hopkins on March 29, Maryland leaned on senior Henry Dodge and sophomore Jonah Carrier to combine for 12 of 18 faceoff wins (66.7%) and nine ground balls.

The duo of Dodge and Carrier helped the Terps win 10 of 11 faceoffs in the first half, and after the Scarlet Knights scored the game’s first goal, Maryland scored nine unanswered goals before Rutgers found the net again with 7:45 left in the third quarter, ending a drought of 35:46.

Spanos sparked the offense with game highs in goals (three) and points (five), senior attackman Braden Erksa contributed two goals and two assists, and graduate student attackman Leo Johnson amassed one goal and two assists. The fireworks were a welcome departure from the struggles the unit had to overcome in that 8-7 overtime win against Ohio State just a week before.

“I know they were super hungry,” Tillman said of the players. “They weren’t happy just to win. When you beat a team as good as Ohio State, that’s an accomplishment in itself. But I think all these guys would like to have more than eight goals and realize to go where you want to go, that’s really going to be tough.”

Redshirt junior goalkeeper Cardin Stoller, an Owings Mills resident and Boys’ Latin graduate, made a game-high 13 saves, but the Scarlet Knights (8-5, 1-3) fell for the third time in four games. Coach Brian Brecht gave credit where credit was due.

“It’s tough,” he said of tangling with Maryland. “They’re a good team. They’re going to wear you down. I thought they capitalized on some of the mistakes we made, and truthfully, we didn’t.”

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