With a trip to the tournament final four on the line, the number one seeded Syracuse Orange lost 6 – 5 to the Maryland Terrapins in Overtime on Sunday afternoon in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Grant Catalino sunk the ball in the back of the net with :33 seconds remaining in overtime to clinch the upset for the Terps and send No. 1 Syracuse back to Central New York shaking their heads.
Syracuse led after one quarter in Foxborough 1-0, but Maryland outscored the Orangemen 2-1 in the second quarter evening the score at halftime, before the Terps commanded the third quarter 3-1 to go up by two goals.
It was a game all about defense and time of possession. The Terps’ clear strategy was to control time of possession and keep the ball out of Syracuse’s clutches. If you don’t have the ball you can’t score, right?
Maryland ended up in the double digits in stall warnings from the afternoon’s referees and their strategy worked almost perfectly, particularly after Maryland was able to take a two-goal advantage. They had the ball in Syracuse’s zone most of the rest of the way.
The Orangemen, however, made the most of the few offense opportunities they did get, outscoring Maryland in the 4th 2-0 and sending the match to overtime.
In the extra period the Terps’ pulled out the all-important face-off and controlled pretty much the entirety of overtime, save a lone transition push by Syracuse ending in a shot sailing high over the net and landing in Maryland’s possession.
On said possession, with :33 seconds left in overtime, an assist by Ryan Young led to a rocket by Grant Catalino past Syracuse goalie John Galloway that put this one away for good.
Scott LaRue had two goals for the Terps and Young had three assists. For Syracuse, both Jeremy Thompson and Jovan Miller scored two goals each in the losing effort.
Maryland advances to the Semi-Finals on their home turf at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore to play the winner of Duke and Notre Day, who face off Saturday afternoon.
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