Like other Maryland men’s lacrosse teammates who count the ways senior attackman Matt Rambo makes his presence felt with the Terrapins, Tim Rotanz shakes his head as he considers the number that underscores Rambo’s bottom line.

Like his teammates, Rotanz is awed by the talent, intelligence and consistency that has paved the way for Rambo to become Maryland’s all-time leader with 245 points. But the thought of Rambo brings other images to Rotanz’s mind.

Rambo is the star who refuses to act like The Man. He typically doesn’t leave the postgame field until he has obliged every fan’s request for an autograph or selfie or both. He’s been known to blush when others offer him glowing praise – some of it from teammates fishing for that awkward reaction.

Rambo is the star who mingles with older impact players such as Rotanz and junior midfielder Connor Kelly as easily as he mixes it up with and coaches up younger, unheralded scout-team players. He never stops trying to out-prank close friend and fellow senior attackman Colin Heacock.

Rambo is way more than a points-scoring machine. He is the versatile pulse of the Maryland offense and has been for the past three seasons. He’s a hunter of goals and assists who rarely forces his way onto the stat sheet, a gifted lefty feeder with an innate ability to pick spots when to use his rugged dodging – and his 5-feet-10, 210-pound frame – to make the day long for defenders and opposing goalies.

“Matt is not flashy. He just works so well in this offense,” said Rotanz, a senior midfielder. “He’s more worried about where the ball lands for the best shot than he is about scoring. Even when he’s not scoring the goal, he’s the one initiating or getting the hockey assist or feeding [the scorer]. The way he plays, he can lull you to sleep a little.

“I wouldn’t say [Rambo] is embarrassed [by the scoring record], but he just doesn’t want the limelight on him,” Rotanz said. “He wants to have fun and be goofy, which we see plenty of in the locker room or in film [study]. He’s very focused and serious on the field, but he’s always trying to keep the guys loose and relaxed. That’s his whole demeanor — have fun while doing it.”

Rambo’s loud voice is often heard directing the Maryland offense. Watch him firing up a huddle with an emotional outburst, or calmly suggesting offensive adjustments during a timeout with Terps coordinator J.L. Reppert.

“Matt is one of the first people to pick up a guy who’s had a bad game, and one of the first to encourage a guy who’s had a great game,” Reppert said. “He’s a goofball off the field and a fierce competitor between the lines. He fits in with our other five guys on offense as well as he fits in with 50 guys in the locker room. That is a special gift.”

Ever since he opened his career by dropping six points on Mount St. Mary’s to ignite a blowout win in the Terps’ 2014 season opener, Rambo has done the expected — from the obvious to the subtle, from blowing up an opponent with a scoring show to digging out key ground balls to preserve crucial, fourth-quarter possessions.

In the end, the numbers summarize the truth about Rambo, a native of the Philadelphia suburb of Glenside and product of LaSalle College High School, where he topped off three outstanding seasons by leading the Explorers to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association title as a senior.

Rambo, who had committed to Maryland more than two years earlier after passing on offers from North Carolina and Virginia, scored 80 goals and dished out 37 assists as a LaSalle senior. For the fourth time, including his freshman season at Abingdon High School, Rambo was voted first team all-state. He was the PhillyLacrosse.com Player of the Year in 2013.

Clearly, for one of the most sought-after lacrosse recruits in America, that was a sign of things to come.

As top-seeded Maryland (13-3) prepared for Sunday’s NCAA tournament quarterfinals clash with eighth-seeded Albany (15-2), Rambo’s place in program history was secure – albeit incomplete.

Back on April 29 against archrival Johns Hopkins, Rambo sparked the Terps to an early, 8-0 lead by tying his career-high with seven points, as Maryland rolled to a 12-5 rout. By the time Hopkins had scored its first goal, Rambo had passed Bob Boniello’s previous all-time points-scoring record of 231 set at Maryland in 1980.

Matt Rambo is DOMINANT.  pic.twitter.com/SZbWWGeQdJ

— Lacrosse Clips (@LaxClips) May 4, 2017

Rambo, who has scored 149 goals, stands five shy of passing Joe Walters (Class of 2006) as the leading goal-scorer in school history. He is closing in on his third consecutive 40-goal season.

One of five finalists this year for the Tewaaraton Trophy, awarded annually to the game’s best player, Rambo arguably should have been on the list in 2016. Last year, he became the school’s first-ever “40-30” player by finishing a brilliant, 43-goal, 32-assist season with 34 points – 17 goals, 17 assists – over six postseason games. He was named a second-team, USILA All-American.

As his senior year winds down, Rambo stands second on the team with 36 goals and is easily tops with a career-high 39 assists. He has assisted on 37 percent of the Terps’ goals.

Rambo was more interested in talking about the countdown to graduation and reflecting on the end of his days with the Maryland lacrosse family than he was in rehashing the records.

“I’m loving every second of [lacrosse],” he said. “It’s becoming surreal. You [actually] like going to practice and to the film room, which now feels awesome. Coach T [head coach John Tillman] only brought up the [points] record once. We don’t talk about it as a team.

“The record shows the hard work everyone has put in around me — players and coaches, older guys like [former Terps] Brian Cole and Mike Chanenchuk and Niko Amato,” Rambo said. “I didn’t come here for individual awards. I didn’t come here to break records. I came here to win a championship as a team. That’s the only thing that’s on my mind.”

During Rambo’s journey in College Park, he has started all 72 of Maryland’s games. The Terps have created soaring moments, while stumbling at crushing times.

With Rambo largely at the controls as the offensive quarterback, Maryland’s senior class has amassed 58 victories, the most ever in school history. The Terps have appeared in three NCAA tournament championship weekends and in the past two title games, each time coming up empty in pursuit of that elusive trophy.

Losing to Denver by five goals on Memorial Day in 2015 was painful. Last year’s overtime defeat against unseeded North Carolina was excruciating for the top-seeded Terps, who coughed up a two-goal lead over the final five minutes of regulation. Rambo was once again dynamic with three goals and three assists that day, but it wasn’t enough.

“Obviously, that [loss] lingers,” Rambo said. “But you’ve got to have a short memory. You can’t go back and do-over or re-write anything about that day. You’ve got to move on, keep working and make yourself better. You can’t dwell on it. You’re going to go through obstacles in life.”

For Rambo, whose 30-goal freshman season — he fulfilled a role as a complementary finisher around seniors led by Chanenchuk – revealed his maturity and adaptability, that obstacle formed during his second fall in College Park in 2014.

Rambo was involved with former teammate and student assistant coach Brian Cooper in an October 22 incident that initially produced first- and second-degree assault charges against each of them, while Rambo also was charged with destruction of property.

Rambo later received probation before judgment on a single count of second-degree assault and was acquitted of a charge of destruction of property. Rambo set about clearing his name by fulfilling community service obligations, while serving a suspension throughout the 2015 preseason.

“That was a difficult one,” Tillman said. “Matt was accused of something without all of the facts being known. We [at Maryland] didn’t rush to judgment. Matt learned that if you play here, you are a celebrity and you’re under a microscope. With social media, the game might be over, but the TV is still on you.”

“Matt learned the hard way that, with everybody knowing who he is, he’s got to walk a tighter line,” said Rich Rambo, Matt’s father. “Student-athletes are scrutinized more than students. To me, it was blown out of proportion. He was embarrassed by it. He took it on the chin and held his head high. He’s a model Maryland student and a better man because of what happened.”

“I’m just thankful that my friends and family and teammates and coaches stuck by me and believed in me and helped me to move on,” Matt Rambo adds. “That [incident] is in my rearview mirror.”

Rambo did not miss a beat in 2015, as he opened his sophomore year with three points in a season-opening win over Navy and closed memorably before scores of hometown fans at Championship Weekend in Philadelphia.

He matched his then-career-high with six points in the semifinal round, punctuating the day with two huge goals, as Maryland slipped past Hopkins, 12-11. He scored twice with an assist two days later in a 10-5 loss to Denver in the final. As the lightning rod of the Maryland offense, Rambo finished the year with 40 goals and 19 assists.

“He’s so powerful when he’s dodging and getting into a defender,” said Heacock, who has lived with Rambo for three years and began forging a close friendship with him when the pair was part of the Under Armour All-America Lacrosse Classic in the summer of 2013.

“But it’s [Rambo’s] vision and patience that are tremendous,” Heacock said. “He can have two or three guys coming at him, or all over him, but still keep his head up and find somebody with a pass right in that spot. He’s always getting us organized out there. His energy every day is huge.”

Rambo’s father coached Matt throughout his youth, and says confidently that his son could have been a great wrestler or football player, had he not begun to focus year-round on his favorite sport by the eighth grade, when he was first starting getting looks on the summer-camp and showcase tournament circuits by college coaches looking at mostly older guys.

“Matt is a natural leader. Kids just gravitate to him,” Rambo’s father said. “He was seeing and playing the game faster than others could react a long time ago. He’s been on a special run as a lacrosse player since the first grade.”

Matt, 22, grew up playing up against bigger, older lacrosse players. That allowed him to play with his brother, Rich, who is three years older and played lacrosse at Rutgers.

“You see the game faster, and you get beat up more, but you get better,” said Matt, who adds that he chose Maryland in part because the feel of its program reflected his blue-collar roots as a Philly guy.

There is blue-collar beyond Rambo’s physical, no-nonsense game. His mother, Annette, is a title process management specialist for an insurance company. His father owns and operates a landscaping business.

When Matt is visiting home, his cravings range from the cheesesteak sub at Steve’s Prince of Steaks (“long steak, not chopped up”) or the Margherita at the local Pizza Box or any sandwich combining egg with cheese, bacon or sausage at the Mini Mart at a Glenside gas station.

For now, one week after his career-high eight points drove the Terps to a 13-10, first-round win over pesky Bryant, Rambo’s biggest cravings involve winning on Sunday at Delaware, then moving on to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. to complete Maryland’s mission.

After nine straight disappointing Memorial Day appearances, the Terps are determined to bring home the school’s first NCAA title since 1975.

“We haven’t won anything yet, and we have a chip on our shoulders,” Rambo says. “We didn’t do enough to get it done last year, which means this year we have to make a few more plays to get it done.”