The Cooldown: Ever-Reliable Maryland, Family Legacies and Ivy Debuts

Death, taxes and John Tillman.

In a season predicted to be, well, unpredictable, Maryland’s head coach reminded us that he has a formula in College Park that just flat out works, predictably.

A loaded Syracuse team with tons of returning firepower seemed on paper to be too much for Maryland to try and keep up with. But Maryland, averaging just 10.3 goals per game this year, dialed up its usual recipe – solid goaltending (Logan McNaney made 12 saves), stout defense and a ball-control offense that limited Syracuse to 41 shots (well below its 50.3 average) and just 19 on cage.

The result was an 11-7 win to move the Terps to 3-0 this season.

Maryland plays a style that sometimes feels like a boa constrictor, they just keep putting on more and more pressure, tightening their hold, while watching teams get out of their normal flow as they begin to get anixous.

Syracuse’s Joey Spallina scored twice late in the first half to give the Orange a 5-4 halftime lead. That would be the last time they were in control.

Maryland completely controlled the tempo from there and a Syracuse team that whips the ball around to create offense, and beautiful goals, relied too much on 1-on-1 dodging as they began to feel the pressure.

So, while Syracuse was a heavy favorite, it’s hard to be surprised to see such success from the Terps. Maryland has now beaten Syracuse seven straight times and Tillman improved to 7-0 in his coaching career against the Orange.

There was some unpredictability this weekend though, notably Richmond beating Virginia 13-10.

The Spiders, who opened the season with a 12-7 loss at Maryland, knocked off the Cavaliers for just the second time in the 12-year history of their program and for the first time ever in Charlottesville.

Virginia head coach Lars Tiffany called out the energy-level of his team in a postgame interview and that played a role in Richmond jumping out to a 4-0 lead.

Richmond sophomore Lucas Littlejohn had two of those four goals and the Canadian finished the game with a team-leading four.

Read below for more from the first full weekend of lacrosse as we welcomed the Ivy League to the party.