Men's Saturday Wrapup

Connor Kelly was a first-team All-American in 2017, helping Maryland win its first national championship in 42 years. He followed that up by being just one of two collegiate players on the final training team roster for the 2018 U.S. men's national team.

It's hard to imagine him getting much better, but he is.

On Saturday, Kelly had a hand in 10 of Maryland's 12 goals, helping the top-ranked Terps to a 12-10 victory over No. 5 Notre Dame in College Park, Md.

Kelly finished with three goals and seven assists, becoming just the fourth Maryland player in school history to amass double-digit points in a game. Kelly was the first to do it since Bob Boneillo set a school record with 13 points in a win over Duke in 1979.

"Connor [Kelly] had a tremendous day, and I'm so proud of him to get seven assists and try to make guys better by keeping his head up and looking for his teammates," said Maryland head coach John Tillman.

Kelly, who had just 11 assists all of last season, was precision with his passing throughout the game, including a cross-crease pass through multiple defenders to set up Logan Wisnauskus just behind the goal for a score, and a long over-the-shoulder pass to set up Adam Dimillo for a goal.

But his back-breaking play was an outside buzzer-beating goal to give Maryland an 8-5 halftime lead. Notre Dame never got closer than two goals the rest of the way.

Can we talk about this halftime buzzer beater for a minute? From 20 yards out... @Tewaaraton nominee Connor Kelly is , leading No. 1 @TerpsMLax past @NDlacrosse 12-10 with 10PTs on 3G & 7A. pic.twitter.com/cqxSKkhKt3

— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) March 3, 2018

Kelly's outburst came against an opponent that has given Maryland fits in recent years. Notre Dame had beaten Maryland in the last four meetings between the two schools, and held the Terps to just four goals in victories in 2016 and 2017.

Maryland's offense also got a major assist from freshman faceoff specialist Justin Shockey, who won 15-of-22 faceoffs. Jared Bernhardt had a hat trick for the Terps and Dan Morris made nine saves.

Ryder Garnsey paced the Notre Dame offense with four goals and an assist, and Mikey Wynne had two goals and two assists.

Maryland's victory sets up a potential showdown between the nation's two No. 1 teams next weekend. Maryland is No. 1  in the Nike/US Lacrosse rankings while Albany is No. 1 in the USILA Coaches Poll and the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll heading into tomorrow's game at Cornell. Albany visits Maryland next Saturday.