Thanks to Maryland's own hustle in the middle of the field, the Terps were able to play a high-octane game and defeat North Carolina 13-5 after dropping the regular season game in Chapel Hill 9-7. Grant Catalino had a career high 6 goals in the game, giving him 23rd place on the all-time scoring list at Maryland with 132 points, passing Pat O'Meally and C. Rennie Smith. He is only 2 points away from tying Dave Dempsey for 22nd place on all-time scoring list.
Bryn Holmes was incredible in the middle 1/3 and his 5 ground balls puts him in 5th place with 223 career ground balls. Face-offs were a big part of the 13-5 win for UMD. He won 13 of the 20 that he took for the game.
The Terps never trailed in this game, much different then the game at UNC where they were playing catch-up for much of the game. Down in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels defense stunned the Terps and really took them out of their comfort zone. with such great size, they don't need to double Catalino or Yeatman, who are both at least 6-5. Brian Farrell scored a couple transition goals. Some analysts have said that his return to the team is a big reason why Maryland has a legitimate shot at getting back to the Final Four...which just happens to be at M&T Bank Stadium this year. Maryland already has two victories against quality opponents (Duke and Johns Hopkins) there this year. They know how to win close games and now have a conference blowout under their belts.
For the first 22:44 seconds of the game, UNC could not get a shot past Brian Phipps. The senior keeper helped keep an offense that was scoring over 11 goals a game at bay. With 13 saves on the day, he has 427 career saves and passed Steve Kavoit for 4th place on the all-time saves list. Much of the success in front of Phipps was with junior defenseman Brett Schmidt. He checked All-American attackman and Tewaraaton Nominee Billy Bitter to 0 points for the first time in 30 games. Bitter was injured last game against the Tar Heels. Traditional thought would have given the edge to #3 UNC especially now that they had their squad completely healthy. But Schmidt and the defense won the battle on the ground, 42-33. Bitter was held to one shot and 6 turnovers while being shadowed predominantly by Brett Schmidt. It was truly an All-American performance [with teammate Max Schmidt earning those honors last year].
Freshman John Haus tallied his first hat trick ever against UNC. It must have been a very emotional game for the talented second-midfielder as he grew up in Chapel Hill and almost committed to the school before his dad was fired a couple years ago. He recruited many of the players that Coach Joe Breschi is leading at the moment. Haus came to UMD despite the family ties and outscored everyone on the field...aside from Catalino who finally had a HUGE game against a HUGE opponent.
Maryland will play UVA at 3:30pm Sunday at Byrd Stadium for the ACC crown. Although not every team in D-1 plays in conference tournaments, they do carry some heavy meaning. If Maryland can continue their winning ways and beat Virginia the second time around, then they might be in line for the #1 overall seed. Even if Syracuse wins the Big East, which they recently joined, I think that getting wins over the #3 and hopefully #2 teams in the country would give Coach Cottle and his players a reasonable chance at taking over the #1 spot in the nation.
Catch all the action on wmucsports.com! Go Terps!
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