Ohio State Buckeyes are Big Ten Tournament Champions
5/3/2025 10:54:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
Will enter NCAA tournament with a 14-2 record and two Big Ten Conference titles
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 1 seed, and nationally fifth-ranked, Ohio State Buckeyes captured their first Big Ten Conference Tournament championship Saturday evening with a 14-10 victory over the No. 3 Maryland Terrapins at Michigan Lacrosse Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The tournament title comes in the wake of a regular season championship for coach Nick Myers' Buckeyes, who will enter the NCAA Tournament next week with a 14-2 overall record. Maryland is now 11-3.
"This Buckeye team is a bunch of grinders," Myers said. "It started with Gannon [Matthews] scoring our first goal and getting some teeth knocked out, but he's right back in the game five minutes later and that really set the tone for the whole game. I'm really proud of this team. They battled. It wasn't perfect, but we fought hard against a really good team.
"Our hats are off to a Maryland team that is excellent. We've been chasing them for 10 years. They are the standard for this conference so congratulations to them."
The Short Story
Ohio State was led offensively by five players with multiple goals. Garrett Haas had three plus an assist and was followed by Alex Marinier, Liam White, Jack McKenna and Griffin Turner with two goals apiece. Turner also had a four-point game with a pair of assists.
Goalie Caleb Fyock, who was named the most outstanding player of the tournament, tied his career high with 19 saves after a 14-save performance Thursday in the semifinals against Rutgers.
Maryland outshot the Buckeyes, 44-31, and secured 15 of 28 faceoffs. Each team had 11 turnovers.
Ohio State dominated the first quarter with five different players scoring goals for a quick 5-0 lead, and when Ohio State wasn't scoring, Fyock was standing tall in the net with five saves. Each team won four faceoffs.
Maryland fought back in the second quarter with four goals, including back-to-back scores twice to cut into the Ohio State lead. But each time Maryland tried to make a run, the Buckeyes responded with three goals of their own to lead, 9-5, at the half. A key moment: Maryland had possession inside of a minute to play, but Cullen Brown cleanly intercepted a pass for a caused turnover and ground ball to keep the margin at four. It was one of three turnovers in the quarter for the Terps. Ohio State did not commit a turnover in the quarter.
Ohio State outscored Maryland, 4-3, in the third quarter to increase the lead to 13-8 heading into the final stanza. Neither team scored after the 9:41 mark of the fourth quarter when Maryland tallied to make the score 14-10. Fyock made two big saves at the 5:00 and 3:56 marks and at that point the Buckeyes were feeling another championship in 2025.
How it Happened
The NCAA Tournament bracket will be announced at 9 p.m. Sunday. First-round games will be conducted next week at eight campus sites. The winning team from each game will advance to the quarterfinals at predetermined sites.
The tournament title comes in the wake of a regular season championship for coach Nick Myers' Buckeyes, who will enter the NCAA Tournament next week with a 14-2 overall record. Maryland is now 11-3.
"This Buckeye team is a bunch of grinders," Myers said. "It started with Gannon [Matthews] scoring our first goal and getting some teeth knocked out, but he's right back in the game five minutes later and that really set the tone for the whole game. I'm really proud of this team. They battled. It wasn't perfect, but we fought hard against a really good team.
"Our hats are off to a Maryland team that is excellent. We've been chasing them for 10 years. They are the standard for this conference so congratulations to them."
The Short Story
Ohio State was led offensively by five players with multiple goals. Garrett Haas had three plus an assist and was followed by Alex Marinier, Liam White, Jack McKenna and Griffin Turner with two goals apiece. Turner also had a four-point game with a pair of assists.
Goalie Caleb Fyock, who was named the most outstanding player of the tournament, tied his career high with 19 saves after a 14-save performance Thursday in the semifinals against Rutgers.
Maryland outshot the Buckeyes, 44-31, and secured 15 of 28 faceoffs. Each team had 11 turnovers.
Ohio State dominated the first quarter with five different players scoring goals for a quick 5-0 lead, and when Ohio State wasn't scoring, Fyock was standing tall in the net with five saves. Each team won four faceoffs.
Maryland fought back in the second quarter with four goals, including back-to-back scores twice to cut into the Ohio State lead. But each time Maryland tried to make a run, the Buckeyes responded with three goals of their own to lead, 9-5, at the half. A key moment: Maryland had possession inside of a minute to play, but Cullen Brown cleanly intercepted a pass for a caused turnover and ground ball to keep the margin at four. It was one of three turnovers in the quarter for the Terps. Ohio State did not commit a turnover in the quarter.
Ohio State outscored Maryland, 4-3, in the third quarter to increase the lead to 13-8 heading into the final stanza. Neither team scored after the 9:41 mark of the fourth quarter when Maryland tallied to make the score 14-10. Fyock made two big saves at the 5:00 and 3:56 marks and at that point the Buckeyes were feeling another championship in 2025.
How it Happened
- Ohio State jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead just 3:24 into the match as Gannon Mathews and Dillon Magee scored unassisted goals just over two minutes apart and Garrett Haas scored off an assist by Griffin Turner, prompting a Maryland timeout.
- Just 44 seconds later Haas scored again, circling around the net to the right of Terp goalie Logan McNaney to slam home his second goal of the game to give Ohio State a 4-0 lead.
- Shane O'Leary gave Ohio State a 5-0 lead with another unassisted score at 8:45 before Maryland got on the board with a goal that Caleb Fyock nearly saved flat on his back similar to the spectacular save he made just before the half of the semifinal win over Rutgers.
- Ohio State retaliated for a goal and a 6-1 lead as Liam White took a feed from Haas and sent a rocket into the net from about 15 yards out.
- Leading goal scorer Alex Marinier scored the first goal of the second quarter, at the 11:59 mark, off an assist from Ben Mayer for a 7-1 lead.
- Back came Maryland, though, with a pair of goals to cut the deficit to four at 7-3 with 9:59 to play in the second quarter.
- Ohio State responded with a goal 32 seconds later to go back up by five, 8-3: Jack McKenna scored off an assist from Turner, his second of the half.
- Maryland countered with back-to-back goals to get to within three, 8-5, with 6:50 to go in the second quarter.
- Ohio State extended the lead once again, to 9-5, with a Griffin Turner goal, the eighth goal scorer of the first half for the Buckeyes.
- It took nearly five minutes for the first goal of the second half; Ohio State scoring the first two, in fact before Maryland tallied to make it an 11-6 game. Ohio State's goals were the second of the game, respectively, by White and McKenna.
- Turner's second goal of the game with 4:56 to play in the third quarter was the first score with a man advantage and it gave Ohio State its largest advantage since leading 7-1 early in the second quarter.
- Maryland came back … scoring two goals a minute apart to get back to within 12-8.
- And for a third time in the game, Ohio State stopped a two-goal Maryland run as Marinier scored for a 13-8 lead.
- Just 15 seconds after Maryland cut the lead to 13-9, Haas scored his third of the game to regain a five-goal lead at 14-9 for the Scarlet and Gray.
- In addition to tournament most outstanding player Caleb Fyock, Buckeyes on the all-tournament team were: Alex Marinier, Cullen Brown, Garrett Haas and Griffin Turner.
- This was Ohio State's third Big Ten tournament title game. In 2015 the Buckeyes lost to Johns Hopkins in College Park, Md., 13-6, and in 2017 the team lost to Maryland in Columbus, 10-9.
- The Buckeyes were decked out in white jerseys with scarlet numerals, black/gray/scarlet piping on the sleeves and scarlet shorts.
- The six goals in the first quarter by Ohio State was the most this season against a Big Ten team.
The NCAA Tournament bracket will be announced at 9 p.m. Sunday. First-round games will be conducted next week at eight campus sites. The winning team from each game will advance to the quarterfinals at predetermined sites.
Team Stats
UMD
OSU
Shots
44
31
Turnovers
11
11
Caused Turnovers
6
5
Faceoffs Won
15
13
Extra-Man Opps
0
1
Ground Balls
26
23
Game Leaders
Players
Players Mentioned
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