UAlbany rallies on the road
Men’s lacrosse tops Maryland 11- 10, scores five unanswered goals for win
COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND » The # 1 UAlbanymen’s lacrosse teampulled off a comeback for the ages, outscoring # 2 Maryland 5- 0 in the fourth quarter, including four goals in the final 6: 30, to win 11- 10 in College Park.
Maryland scored in the first 31 seconds as Jake Burnhardt netted a goal close range. After defending on man- down, Connor Fields drew a double team and found Jakob Patterson on the doorstep for he close shot and score. Maryland took back the lead two minutes later with a pass across the defense to Logan Wisnauskas for the long ranges hot and score. UAlbany had along offense possession with four shots, but Maryland held, scoring the other way with a Bub ba Fair man bounce shot score. Maryland led 3-1 after the first quarter.
UAlbany got ago al back to begin the second quarter as Fields kept dodging and spinning to get off a defender, getting space and scoring from 10 yards out. UAl-bany held on defense on a couple of Maryland shots, but a third at- temp to na quick restart off a push was ago al by Adam DiMillo. Mary-land added two more quick goals to lead by four; Kyle McClancy got one back in the final two minutes of the half, rolling inside his defender and scoring point blank. U Albany trailed 6-3 at the break.
Maryland scored two goals int he first five minutes of the 3rd, with Wisnauskas scoring while the Ter-ra pins were man-up, and Fair man adding a second. Off as hot clock warning, Fields was open straight away for the rip and score with 7:10 left in the quarter. Five min
utes later, UAlbany rolled off two quick goals, an over the shoulder, back to the goal shot and score from Patterson, then McClancy emerged from behind the cage and scored to pull the Great Danes within two. Maryland scored two goals to lead 10- 6 after three.
Into the fourth quarter, UAlbany notched a quick goal, as Maryland led 10-7 going to the final 6:30.
At the 6:14 mark, Mc- Clancy made a stutter step move inside his defender to score on the doorstep. TD Ierlan kept winning faceoffs, as Patterson got next to the circle and scored. With 4:28 left, Patterson again got the ball, hitting a blazing shot under the crossbar to tie the game at 10-10.
Maryland got possession on the next faceoff and ran down the clock as Jake Bernhardt shot high, as JD Colarusso made the save. After a clear and timeout, Fields on the run hit a bouncing shot past the keeper to give UAlbany its first lead of the game with 1:16. UAlbany won the faceoff and got the clock down to 10 seconds before Maryland got the ball. The ride held the final 10 seconds as UAlbany took the victory 11-10.
“That was awesome. That was everything we expected it to be, the crowd, the atmosphere, and how good Maryland was,” UAlbany head coach Scott Marr said. “We struggled for the better part of the game, especially in the first half, then in the second half we picked it up a little bit.
“We talked about all year about the character in our locker room, knowing we could come back. I couldn’t be more proud of our effort today, I have to hand it to my coaches and the boys in the locker room.”
Next week, UAlbany begins America East play against Vermont, currently ranked # 15 in the nation, on Saturday, March 17th at 3 p.m. For ticket information for UAlbany men’s lacrosse games, fans may contact the UAlbany ticket office at 518- 442-DANE or ualbanysports.com/tickets.