No. 2 Virginia Outplayed by No. 1 Maryland 23-12 in Championship Rematch

The Terrapins avenged their loss in last year's Championship with a resounding victory over the Cavaliers on Saturday

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Mar 19, 2022 6:15 PM EDT

From the opening faceoff, Virginia seemed out of sync and more than a step slower than Maryland.

Starting a trend that would last for the rest of the game, Luke Wierman won the initial faceoff and streaked toward the net before making a pass to the left wing to Keegan Khan. The Virginia defense was slow on the rotation and Khan buried his shot in the back of the net just eight seconds into the game to give the Terrapins a lead that they would never relinquish.

The Cavaliers were sloppy and turnover-prone and No. 2 Virginia was defeated by No. 1 Maryland 21-12 on Saturday afternoon at Audi Field in Washington D.C.

Billed as a an epic showdown between the top two teams in the country and a rematch of last year's thrilling National Championship Game, the game itself failed to live up to the hype as the Terrapins thoroughly outplayed the Cavaliers for all 60 minutes.

Faceoff specialist Luke Wierman was the catalyst for Maryland's strong start. Wierman won seven of the first nine faceoffs and utterly dominated the matchup with Petey LaSalla, who won just five of 18 faceoffs taken. Gable Braun ended up taking the majority of the draws for the Cavaliers and did not fare much better, winning 9 of his 21 faceoffs. Wierman won 24 of his 36 faceoff draws and gave the Terrapins a massive edge in possessions. The Terps used that advantage to jump out to an early 5-2 lead, including a pair of first quarter goals from Keegan Khan, who led Maryland with four goals and three assists.

Even when Virginia managed to gain possession, the Cavaliers turned the ball over with frequency and failed to generate strong shots on goal. UVA had eight turnovers in the first half and 17 turnovers overall.

In the second quarter, things got out of hand. Coming into the game, the most goals Virginia had allowed this season was 11. The Terrapins rattled off four consecutive goals in the second period and outscored the Cavaliers 7-3 to take a commanding 12-6 halftime lead. Logan Wisnauskas tallied two goals in the second quarter and finished with three goals and two assists.

Griffin Schutz scored the first goal of the second half, but Maryland scored the next three goals to take a 15-7 lead. Virginia tightened up defensively after that and did not allow a Terrapin goal for the next 15 minutes. UVA scored four unanswered goals spanning the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth to make it 15-11 with 11:29 remaining.

Then, the Terrapins scored a pair of backbreaking goals. Midfielder Roman Puglise cleared the ball and immediately dodged to the goal from the right wing and scored to stop the Virginia run. Two minutes later, Maryland broke the Virginia ride in spectacular fashion as long-stick defenseman Matt Rahill fired a shot from well beyond midfield that found its mark in the back of the empty net.

That play certainly broke the Cavaliers' spirits and the Terrapins happily poured it on after that, finishing the game on an 8-1 run to punctuate what had to be a very satisfying blowout 23-12 victory to avenge Maryland's loss in last year's National Championship Game.

Matthew Nunes suffered the first loss of his collegiate career, making 14 saves and yielding 20 goals, many of which he had little chance to stop. In the other cage, Logan McNaney was solid with nine saves versus 12 goals allowed. The Maryland defense did a tremendous job of preventing the Cavaliers from scoring in transition.

Matt Moore and Connor Shellenberger each tallied three goals and two assists, but UVA could not get into an offensive rhythm and simply did not have enough possessions to keep up with Maryland's offensive production. Maryland had four players with at least three goals and 11 different Terrapins scored in the game.

Virginia (6-1) suffers its first loss of the season and returns to Charlottesville to face No. 16 Notre Dame next Saturday (3/26) at 1pm at Klockner Stadium.

See more Virginia men's lacrosse news and content: Virginia Men's Lacrosse on Sports Illustrated

See more Virginia sports news and content: Virginia Cavaliers on Sports Illustrated

Read more from Cavaliers Now