Ohio State (11-5), on the strength of six unanswered goals, defeated Maryland (12-3) in College Park, MD, 9-6 in front of 1,328 on Thursday night at Byrd Stadium.
It was a rematch of a thrilling contest at Ohio Stadium less than two weeks ago as two top 15 teams in the nation put on a show once again.
The Buckeyes and Terrapins showed why they were among the best in the nation defensively in the first half, as the teams went into the locker room with the score 3-2 favoring the second-seeded Terps.
Senior captain Jesse King got the ball rolling on a man-up opportunity with his team-leading 36th goal of the season 2:25 into the game.
With the Terps a man up, sophomore Matt Rambo would tie the game 1:52 later with his team leading 31st goal, beating sophomore netminder Tom Carey from 12 yards out with a bullet to the top right corner of the net.
Carey was instrumental in the win for the Buckeyes, making 8 saves.
Both teams were 1-3 on man-up opportunities.
Senior midfielder Joe LoCascio put the Terps ahead before the first quarter ended with his 24th goal, and tallied another goal with 4:02 left in the second quarter to make it a 3-1 game.
OSU senior midfielder Turner Evans cut the lead to one with his seventh goal of the 2015 campaign as he drove hard to the net from the right alley, beating junior goalie Kyle Bernlohr.
Bernlohr made three saves on the evening. Ohio State outshot Maryland 27-22.
Possession was another key factor for Ohio State.
Senior Christopher May won 11-17 faceoffs against his counterparts, Charlie Raffa, Jon Garino, Bobby Gribbin and Andrew Walsh.
The Scarlet and Gray would tie the game early in the third quarter, before Maryland took the momentum right back, scoring two goals of their own.
Junior Carter Brown potted his 29th goal of the season with his trademark wrap around type of goal, driving from x to get to the right side of the cage to open up a shot.
Rambo scored his second of the game, complimented with a score from senior attackman Jay Carlson 50 seconds later to make it a 5-3 Terrapin lead with 4:20 left.
Then Ohio State took over.
Senior David Planning scored with a second remaining in the third to cut the lead to one, making it a 5-4 game heading into the fourth quarter.
Goals 40 seconds apart from Evans and Planning again gave Ohio State the lead.
King would play Robin to freshman Colin Chell’s Batman for a pair of goals to give the Buckeyes an 8-5 advantage.
Both times King drew slides from Maryland defenders to open up Chell for his goals. King finished with a goal and three assists.
With Bernlohr out of his cage, Brown’s second goal with 1:33 remaining in the game rounded out the scoring for the Buckeyes.
Junior Bryan Cole scored with 25 seconds left to make it a 9-6 game, and that’s where things would stand as the Buckeyes advanced to Saturday’s championship game against John’s Hopkins, beating Maryland for the first time in program history.
Ohio State defeated Hopkins 15-12 at Ohio Stadium on April 5.
Saturday’s final will be at 8pm and can be seen on the Big Ten Network.
