On Saturday February 14th at 12:00pm the Terps will take the short bus trip to Annapolis and open up their season with the Navy MidShipmen. While UMD looks to start off their season in the win column, the Naval Academy looks to get win number 2.
With face off man Charlie Raffa back and feeling healthy I would pick the Terps to once again dominate at the X. Last week Navy won 23-32 face offs against VMI but this week won’t be as easy.
Navy had 11 different goal scorers last week and may need that against UMD and their always stout defense. The only question I would say the Terps have is in between the pipes after former goalie Niko Amato graduated last spring. Senior goalie Kyle Bernlohr should be tested by the Midshipmen.
While on the other side of the field junior goalie John Connors for Navy will have the tough task of trying to stop the Terps offense. Senior Jay Carlson will be looking to get on the board early and often. Along with midfielder Joe Locasio who had a great season last year for UMD will be looking to pick apart the Navy defense. Navy was ranked to finish 6th in the pre season Patriot League poll and I’m sure coach Rick Sowell would like to improve on that, considering that is where they finished last season. He said “We have some big challenges ahead in our schedule, including Maryland who is one of the elite teams in our sport”.
Coach Tillman and the Terps will be looking to take advantage of and early JHU loss to jump up from the preseason 2nd place BIG 10 conference ranking and 8th in the NCAA. I would say if your in Maryland on Saturday and can make it down to Annapolis you should be in for a great game. So far there have been some big upsets in February and this could be another.
