High Point is coming to College Park to take on the Maryland Terrapins. The Terps will be opening the season and are eager to start the path back to Philadelphia and the National Final Four. High Point will be on their third game of the season, after competing against Boston University at home.
In the Panthers’ opening contest against Duke, they were outrun by a Duke team that will wear down opponents. After opening the scoring, the Panthers were chasing the Blue Devils as the Devils scored the next four goals. They are hoping to get off the bus quicker and pace play against the Terrapins.
Maryland opens up the season with some fanfare as they reached the national championship game against Denver. Some new pieces to mix with staples of Maryland’s title game run, have Coach Tillman excited to get started.
New Look Offense
Maryland graduated some key pieces of the machine last Memorial Day. Joe LoCascio and Jay Carlson were seemingly on campus forever and finally have given way to the next round of stars. Bryan Cole returns after an extremely successful stretch run into the playoffs.
UMBC transfer Pat Young should welcome a sharing role in the offense and not have to carry the weight of the team like he did in Catonsville. Freshmen Tim Monahan and Louis Dubick are looking to make an impact right away at attack.
Returning players like Henry West and Dylan Maltz are looking to be consistent scoring threats for the Terps. Too many times last year the Terps relied on Rambo and Cole to get to the cage, with Carlson finding openings in the middle when the defense decided to slide. Now the wealth needs to be shared between all six starters for greater efficiency and balance.
As always, Matt Rambo will be the feature of the Terps early season offense.
Defensive Backbone
High Point is going to have to manage their turnovers against a normally tenacious defense in Maryland. Matt Neufeld went down in the fall with an ACL tear, so there is going to be a new long stick midfielder to patrol the middle of the field. The close defense got a huge lift from Virginia transfer Greg Danseglio.
With one year remaining, Danseglio will anchor a defensive unit that returns starters from last season. Mac Pons is another great defenseman in college lacrosse and could very well become a household name along with past Maryland greats.
If High Point can retain possessions with the graduation of Maryland faceoff expert Charlie Raffa, they can make this a game. The problem will be scoring, as returning C. Markland Kelly Award Winner Kyle Bernlohr returns to mind the net for the Terps.
Outcome
Maryland’s offense will come out slowly as the pieces need to find a rhythm, but Maryland is going to win in the end. High Point is looking to connect last year’s success to this season’s future, hoping for a better showing than the Duke game.
