Maryland and Loyola were on the opposite ends of thrilling finishes in the NCAA men’s lacrosse quarterfinals.
Maryland senior midfielder Anthony DeMaio scored the game-winner 39 seconds into overtime to give the third-seeded Terrapins a 14-13 win against No. 6 seed Notre Dame.
The Greyhounds were on the verge of an upset against second-seeded Duke but a goal by Joe Robertson gave the Blue Devils a 10-9 victory with 57.8 seconds left in overtime.
Both games were in South Bend, Ind.
The top four seeds — three from the ACC — advanced to the NCAA semifinals this weekend in East Hartford, Conn. Maryland (14-0) will face second-seeded Duke (14-2) and top-seeded North Carolina (13-2) will play fourth-seeded Virginia (12-4) on Saturday, May 29.
“Obviously, I am proud of our guys to come out in the quarterfinals and getting a win,” Maryland coach John Tillman said. “This was the kind of game where neither team deserved to lose. We knew Notre Dame would come back. We knew they were awesome, and they were as advertised.”
Senior attackman Jared Bernhardt, the Tewaaraton Award frontrunner, led Maryland with five goals, while senior attackman Logan Wisnauskas scored a hat trick in the second half.
After squandering an early four-goal lead, the Terrapins trailed 12-9 early in the fourth quarter. Maryland then went on a four-goal run to take a 13-12 lead. But Notre Dame tied the game 13-13 with 4:24 left in the game.
In the overtime, DeMaio took a pass from Wisnauskas on Maryland’s first possession and fired the ball past Notre Dame goalie Liam Entenmann, who finished with 16 saves.
“Those guys on the sideline are awesome,” DeMaio said. “I think that’s just something that this team prides itself on. We all believe in each other, we have faith in each other in the whole game. Whether it was from the coaches, the training staff, all the guys on the sidelines, everyone had belief, everyone believed in each other.”
The Terrapins will be appearing in their sixth of seven NCAA semifinals (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2021) and are second only to Johns Hopkins for appearances on championship weekend (27). Since Tillman came to Maryland for the 2011 season, the Terps have played in the most NCAA semifinals in the country, appearing in eight of the 10 played. The tournament was not held last year because of COVID-19.
Loyola (10-6) couldn’t generate the same late-game heroics against the Blue Devils.
Senior attackman Kevin Lindley gave the Loyola a 9-8 lead with 2:04 left in regulation. However, junior defenseman Cam Wyers was penalized for unnecessary roughness in front of the Greyhounds’ net. That opened the door for Duke, which tied the game for the sixth time on a goal by Brennan O’Neill with 1:09 remaining.
In the extra period, Loyola had a critical turnover with less than two minutes remaining and Robertson took advantage, getting topside from the ‘X,’ and his shot trickled in for the game-winning goal.
It ended a remarkable run for the Greyhounds, who were at 5-5 at one point of the season and could not play in the Patriot League championship game because of COVID-19.
“We think that the quarterfinal round should be a standard for this program, and obviously it’s looking pretty grim when you’re 5-5,” Loyola coach Charley Toomey said. “I just think that I’m not going to be happy with it because we were right here to go to a Final Four. We’ve been to the Final Four in 2016, and this senior class has taken us to three straight quarterfinal rounds, something that doesn’t happen often.
“But in my opinion, this should be the standard for our program. So no, I’m going to appreciate the effort that they gave us, but this was what was expected when we took the field in Week 1.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics