Terps hold on for shot at crown

goalkeeper Alex Ready made 12 saves.

“They’ve got a great defense,” said Kelly, who led all players with three goals including the eventual game-winner with 8:41 left. “We have a lot of respect for them. They’ve got a lot of lanky guys that can get out to your hands. But we were just trying to play our game.”

The final two minutes saw a wild sequence. Senior attackman Colin Heacock (Boys’ Latin) converted a feed from senior attackman Matt Rambo with 1:28 remaining, but the goal was waved off after an official ruled he had stepped into the crease

“I’m not too sure what really happened,” Heacock said after scoring two goals on nine shots. “It just happened so fast. But the officials did a tremendous job the entire game.”

Junior midfielder Connor Donahue then appeared to score the game-tying goal with 9.2 seconds left, but it was also wiped out by a crease violation. The ruling incensed Pioneers coach Bill Tierney and the rest of his coaching staff, but play continued and Maryland ran out the clock.

After expressing his opinion that the sport needs to install a mandatory shot clock and allow players to dive into the crease while taking shots, Tierney hedged on whether he disagreed with the ruling that erased Donahue’s goal.

“We’ll see,” he said. “If he landed in the crease, then it was the right call. If he didn’t, it was the wrong call. But I just think our game is kind of silly right now without those two rules.”

Noting how narrow the win was and how fortunate the Terps were, Tillman said, “That game could have gone anybody’s way. It literally was a game of inches. If you look at those last two plays, I thought the refs made the right calls on both of them.”

In a game that pitted two of the five Tewaaraton Award finalists, both labored mightily. Rambo was limited to one goal on four shots and one assist by Denver sophomore defenseman Dylan Gaines.

Pioneers junior faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste won only 11 of 21 draws and picked up six ground balls. Baptiste was stymied by the Maryland duo of sophomore Austin Henningsen (7-for-15, one ground ball) and senior Jon Garino Jr. (3-for-6, one ground ball). Denver 1 2 3 Maryland 3 2 3 Goals: D—Marano 2, Walker 2, Cannizarro, Donahue, Jackson, Reid; M—Kelly 3, Heacock 2, Maltz 2, Rambo, Rotanz. Assists: D—Donahue, French; M—Maltz, Rambo. Saves: D—Ready 12; M—Morris 8.