There was a lot of tension facing the Maryland Terrapins as they faced Denver in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Despite some early struggles, Maryland was able to show that they had made strides towards playing like the team that was excellent in the first half of the season. The Terps had a lot of success on both ends of the field which helped them to hold off a very talented Denver team.

However, the game did not start favorably for Maryland. After the first 5:03, Denver had already opened up a two goal lead with tallies from John Dickenson and Joey Murray. Grant Catalino put Maryland in the scoring column with his 26th goal of the season midway through the first quarter. Two minutes and 19 seconds later, Ben Koll pushed Denver’s lead back out to two. Maryland’s Max Ritz closed out the scoring in the first quarter with his tenth goal of the season. Despite trailing, Maryland put together a very aggressive offensive attack in the first quarter firing 16 shots. They also had 13 ground balls to Denver’s eight.

The second quarter continued to play out to Denver’s advantage. Denver’s Jamie Lincoln opened the scoring five minutes into the quarter. Then Denver took their biggest lead as Ilija Gajic scored while in mid-air and with his back to the goal off of a pass from Joey Murray. Maryland was struggling at this point in the game. They were taking bad shots and shooting it right at Denver goalkeeper Austin Konkel. A penalty by Denver’s Carlos Navarro midway through the second quarter changed the tide of the game. Jeremy Sieverts scored a man-up goal after Navarro’s penalty. This goal started a huge run for the Terps. With 3:42, Max Ritz scored another man-up goal for the Terrapins. Brett Weiss tied the game with :47 seconds left in the half with Maryland’s third man-up goal of the quarter.

The first 8:48 of the second half was scoreless for both sides, but Maryland was dominating the play. Denver was unable to get any quality possessions through the quarter. Dan Groot gave Maryland their first lead of the day with his 12th goal of the year after his shot that would have gone wide deflected off a Denver defender. With 3:34 Ryan Young scored his ninth of the season to give Maryland a two goal lead. Maryland dominated this quarter, only allowing Denver to take three shots.

Two minutes into the fourth quarter, Maryland got the emotional push that they needed to advance to the Elite Eight. Senior defensive cornerstone Joe Cinosky called his own number as he took the ball to the Denver goal, scoring his first career goal. He was mobbed by his teammates in his final quarter in College Park. 4:30 into the quarter, Grant Catalino pushed Maryland’s lead out to four goals. Denver cut the lead to two with goals from Charlie Dickenson and Ilija Gajic but Drew Evans secured the win with a goal for Maryland with 1:01 remaining.
Maryland was able to win this game because of its success in man-up situations as well as being able to limit Denver’s possessions in the second half. They had 46 total ground balls to Denver’s 36. The Terps also took 43 shots to Denver’s 23. Maryland had 29 shots alone in the first half. This was one of their more thorough performances. Maryland will face the winner of UMBC/Virginia next week.

Chris Grady