The Michigan Lacrosse team came away with an impressive victory at Maryland, the No. 1 team in the country. Here’s how Kevin Conry’s group got it done:
WHAT. A GAME.
The Michigan Wolverines (5-4, 1-0) outlasted the No. 1 Maryland Terrapins (7-1, 0-1) in a triple-overtime classic, 11-10, Saturday afternoon in College Park.
Nick Roode was the hero at the end of the third sudden-death frame with his crease finish on a pass from Emmett Houlihan. Houlihan took an inverted doge from behind the cage and hit a slipping Roode for the winner.
This is a game the Wolverines had to have.
Losers of two straight and starting conference play on the road against the No. 1 team in the nation is usually a recipe for disaster. However, from the opening whistle, Michigan proved it was there to play.
The offense was rolling early with goals by Lukas Stanat and Bo Lockwood, who both looked confident as dodgers and shooters. After building an advantage, it was a grueling, back-and-forth affair.
No team led by more than two goals all game and every time it appeared one of them would pull ahead, the other responded resoundingly.
After 30 minutes, it seemed like we were in for a shootout. The offenses traded blows and the Wolverines went to the locker room trailing 7-6. However, Michigan quickly regained the lead thanks to Ryan Cohen and Aidan Mulholland.
First, it was Cohen on a top left dodge switching to his right hand and beating All-American goalie Logan McNaney for the leveler. It was a milestone tally not only because he used his rarely-deployed off-hand, but it was the 100th for his career.
Cohen became the fourth player in program history to record 100 goals and joins Michael Boehm as the only players to hit the century mark in both goals and assists.
Then, Mulholland got in on the action with a powering, overhand rip to put the Wolverines up 8-7. Michigan ended the third up 10-8 and in a commanding position to come away with an upset.
The Terrapins, though, and their battle-tested squad were unfazed. Their defense pitched a fourth-quarter shutout and sent the game to overtime.
This is when the Wolverines defense really buckled down. They were terrific all day, but in a next-goal-wins scenario, they had to be perfect. Goalie Hunter Taylor was a wizard in net, recording 13 saves on 23 shots.
The most important came as the clock was winding down in double overtime. Maryland caused a turnover and had numbers in transition. A long pole came down the slot with an open look on cage, but Taylor swooped low for the game-preserving stop.
In triple overtime, Nick Lauderback took the faceoff for Jack Rideout and won it — Michigan’s sole overtime faceoff victory. Lauderback was excellent all game, winning 7-of-12 draws while Rideout went just 4-of-15.
After a Kevin Conry timeout, the Wolverines got Houlihan inverted, and from there, it was all Roode.
There are plenty of individual defensive performances that stand out, but this was a unit-wide effort to limit the balanced Terrapin offense. Kees Van Wees was incredible in coverage and had a huge takeaway check in the first overtime.
Mason Whitney played some of his best one-on-one defense of the season, Pace Billings was all over the place, and the short-stick defensive midfield group, led by Carson Billig, was physical and patient matching feet.
Taylor once again bailed the defense out when needed, and without him, this could have been a three or four-goal defeat.
This one felt eerily similar to the Duke game , which saw the Wolverines go on the road, against a top opponent, and come up short in overtime.
However, Saturday was a different story. Michigan made clutch play after clutch play, whether it be a Taylor save, a caused turnover, a middle-third ground ball or finishing its chances against an almost unbeatable goalie.
Cohen ended with two goals and two assists, Houlihan had one goal and one assist, and Jack Jenkins joined Roode and Stanat with two goals a piece. Lockwood and Mulholland only had one goal each, but the offense whipped the ball around and had great off-ball cutting.
The Wolverines are still 5-4, but this could be a season-defining victory. Sure, the Big Ten schedule is brutal and there will be no off-weeks for the rest of the calendar. Yet, this should build confidence in a team desperate for a victory and propel them into April. It was also the first time in program history that they defeated a number-one-ranked team.
Next up is another big test — vs. No. 11 Johns Hopkins next Saturday in Ann Arbor.