Maryland Back in Business After Beating Penn State

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland got back to business Saturday. It usually does when it is coming off a loss.

The Terrapins seemed unruffled by its first stumble of the season, quickly creating separation from Penn State on the way to a 13-8 victory. Matthew Keegan had two goals and two assists, while Braden Erksa and Eric Spanos both scored three times.

“I think it was fixing the kinks,” long pole Jack McDonald said. “We knew that there were certain things we needed to get better at, but in the grand scheme of things, we realized we just needed to get back to work. There’s really nothing more to it.”

Not particularly, no. And it really wasn’t too stunning, because that’s what Maryland (8-1, 1-1 Big Ten) has typically done during the last decade and a half under John Tillman.

The Terps improved to 34-8 when coming off a loss in the same season under Tillman. That number improves to 45-8 when factoring in season openers after losing in the NCAA tournament the previous year. And Maryland hasn’t dropped three in a row at any point since 2009, two seasons before Tillman debuted on the Terps’ sideline.

That’s partially a tribute to Maryland being as consistent as anyone in the sport in that stretch. But it’s also a reminder of how well the Terps make tweaks after running into a roadblock.

Or perhaps in this case, how judiciously things are altered. It’s not as if there was an inclination toward wholesale changes after dropping an 11-10 decision in triple overtime, as the Terps did a week earlier against Michigan.

“I think if it’s a closer game, you’re probably like ‘Let’s not overreact,’” Tillman said. Sometimes, when it just does not go well [it’s different]. Last year in the Big Ten [tournament], we had a whole lot we had to analyze. It did not go well in Ohio and we couldn’t just roll out and do what we did the last game.”

What specifically “didn’t go well in Ohio” was Maryland’s most recent meeting with Penn State, a 19-9 semifinal shellacking that nearly cost the Terps a first-round NCAA tournament home game. Instead, the Terps salvaged their season with a push to the national title game, piling up victories over Princeton, Duke and Virginia along the way.

While that team almost seemed reinvented on the fly, Maryland did not dramatically change in a week. But it did get better, in a few areas.

Defensively, the Terps were crisper, denying Penn State (6-3, 0-2) many interior looks after getting sliced up late in the shot clock a handful of times by a patient Michigan offense. After scoring the game’s first goal, the Nittany Lions managed just one more in the next 33 minutes.

And at that point, it was 8-2 early in the third quarter, and Penn State wouldn’t get closer than four the rest of the way.

The biggest switch, though, was a far more effective use of transition. Some of that showed up in scoring; McDonald had an assist, and defensive midfielder George Stamos added two.

Yet the Terps were also more careful to avoid handing the ball right back to Penn State. Sometimes, the best decision is to reserve the right to run a minute of offense.

“We wanted to pick our spots when we would go in transition because playing in the Big Ten is really hard,” McDonald said. “You don’t want to give up short possessions.”

The solid showing allowed Maryland to avoid Penn State’s fate: Back-to-back losses to open league play after a solid nonconference showing. The Nittany Lions still own one of the best victories on the board — an overtime defeat of Cornell on the road — but they have some work in front of them with a trip to Michigan and home games against Johns Hopkins and Rutgers looming the next three weeks.

Maryland’s profile is stronger, and adding a defeat of Penn State to a collection that includes Notre Dame, Princeton, Richmond and Syracuse only bolstered the Terps’ resume.

“If you had told me with our schedule, you’d win eight out of nine games, I’d take it,” Tillman said. “I wouldn’t say we couldn’t win them all, but that would be a tall task.”

Nearly as difficult a challenge as dealing with Maryland the week after it sifted through the root cause of a loss.