Ohio State
Maryland
No. 11 Ohio State Falls to No. 3 Maryland in OT, 10-9 – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 18, 2015
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 11-ranked Ohio State men’s lacrosse team lost the 2015 Showdown in the Shoe to No. 3-ranked Maryland, 10-9 in overtime, Saturday. The Buckeyes are now 10-4 on the year and suffer their first Big Ten Conference loss (3-1), while the Terrapins improve to 12-1 overall and clinch at least a share of the inaugural league title with a 4-0 mark.
The Buckeyes led 4-1 after the first quarter and 6-4 at halftime before carrying an 8-5 lead into the fourth quarter. Ohio State pushed the lead to four (9-5) with a goal at 10:16 of the fourth quarter. The Terrapins scored four times in the final 4:22 (in a span of 3:13) to tie the game and then prevailed in overtime. Attendance at halftime of the lacrosse game was 21,604, with about 40,000 fans in the stands by the end of overtime.
“It’s frustrating because you play as well as we have in a number of areas, but we ran out of steam and didn’t execute all the way to the end of the game,” Nick Myers, Ohio State head coach, said. “That is ultimately what cost us. The kids played their hearts out and you have to credit them for that. It’s always great to have such a big crowd for the Showdown in the Shoe. It is disappointing not to pull out the win, but I’m very proud of the team’s effort.”
Senior Jesse King led the Buckeyes with four goals and six points and now has a career-high 34 goals and a team-best 54 points. Sophomore goalie Tom Carey had 11 saves in the Buckeye cage and graduate student Christopher May won 10 faceoffs, with sophomore Jake Withers winning 3-for-4.
“Today was spectacular,” King said. “I am so happy I chose to come to this program. This is the reason you come to Ohio State – for events like this – and why the sport of lacrosse is growing the way that it is here in the Midwest. I’m lucky to have this experience, I just wish the outcome could have been different.”
Ohio State will close the regular season at Rutgers at noon Saturday, with ESPNU televising the game. The Buckeyes will then head to College Park, Md., for the inaugural Big Ten Tournament April 30/May 1.
Ohio State scored the game’s first four goals and led 4-1 at the end of the first quarter. King opened the scoring at 14:48 and at 10:21, redshirt sophomore Tyler Pfister set up senior Rick Lewis for a goal. Senior Turner Evans assisted on a King goal at 5:47 before Carter Brown extended the lead to 4-0 at 3:59.
UMD scored the next three goals to draw within one. Jay Carlson scored back-to-back at 2:56 of the first quarter and 14:07 of the second quarter, followed by a goal from Matt Rambo at 13:24 to make it a 4-3 game. Ohio State scored the next two to push ahead by three (6-3). Junior Ryan Hunter tallied at 8:04 before King set up Kelly at 6:50. Maryland’s Bryan Cole had the final goal of the quarter at 3:23 and Ohio State took a 6-4 lead into halftime. Ohio State outshot Maryland, 20-13, in the first half, including 13-4 in the first quarter.
The Terrapins opened the scoring in the second half on a goal from Joe LoCascio at 11:27 before the Buckeyes went on a three-goal run to go ahead by four (9-5) at 10:16 of the fourth quarter. King ended the Maryland run with a goal at 9:57 and then set up Kelly at 3:49. Shots were 11-5 in favor of Maryland in the third quarter.
King scored a highlight reel goal at 10:16 of the fourth quarter, shoveling a shot over his shoulder with the Maryland goalie not set. Ohio State held its four-goal lead until the 4:22 mark, when Matt Rambo scored for Maryland at 4:22 and Henry West converted at 3:14 to make it a two-goal game. At 1:34 Maryland took advantage of a man-up chance as LoCascio converted to draw UMD within one and 25 seconds later Colin Heacock tied the game at nine. Each team had six shots in the fourth quarter.
Ohio State won the faceoff to open overtime and took a timeout, but turned the ball over without getting a shot. Maryland was able to clear and get a shot, with Carey making a save in the Buckeye cage. After a timeout, Maryland had two shots wide, with Carlson scoring on a third attempt to give the Terrapins the win. Maryland had the only four shots of the overtime.
In the game, Maryland outshot Ohio State, 34-31. Carey had 11 saves in 63:11, while Maryland’s Kyle Bernlohr had eight stops. It was Carey’s 10th game with 10 or more saves this season and he has a 7.88 goals-against average and .556 save percentage on the year.
Ohio State had 23 groundballs, with Maryland picking up 22. The Buckeyes were ahead in faceoffs, 13-11. May won 10-of-20 and had six groundballs, while sophomore Jake Withers won 3-for-4 on the day. Junior defenseman Robby Haus had three groundballs and two caused turnovers vs. the Terrapins. May has won 162-of-255 faceoffs this season (.635), with Withers winning 20-of-38 (.526).
The attendance of 21,064 was the eighth-highest for a regular season game in NCAA lacrosse history.
