Matt Rambo’s Twitter name is “Lion,” and he certainly played like one today, especially in the 4th quarter in an 11-10 win over Johns Hopkins. The sophomore from nearby Glenside and alum of La Salle College High School scored four goals and two assists to lead the Terrapins to their first national championship game since 2012, where they fell to Loyola.
Maryland got on the board first with a goal from Henry West less than four minutes into the game. Joel Tinney tied it up with about five-and-a-half left before FOGO Charlie Raffa untied it seven seconds later. Maryland had a 4-1 lead entering the second quarter, when Patrick Fraser and Wells Stanwick put Hopkins within one. Colin Heacock and Jay Carlson exchanged goals of their own before Wells scored his second to cut the Terrapin lead to two entering the half.
After Maryland and Hopkins exchanged goals early in the 3rd, Maryland scored three straight to start to pull away and lead by five. But Hopkins did not give up. John Crawley, who went on the first midfield unit, scored back-to-back goals to cut the Maryland lead to three at the end of the 3rd. Hopkins eventually tied it with goal by Tinney, Crawley, and Ryan Brown, and momentum looked like it was all Hopkins. But the local product from La Salle wasn’t ready to leave his home city just yet. Rambo scored an extra man goal followed by an even strength goal in a span of about two-and-a-half minutes to regain the lead for Maryland. A late push, which included a goal by Shack Stanwick on the extra man, was not enough for the Blue Jays. Johns Hopkins had multiple opportunities with a minute to play, including a Shack shot that hit the outside of the net, but couldn’t convert. In his post-game press conference, Coach Dave Pietramala was fine with the shot that the younger Stanwick took since he was a player that he could trust. Maryland will take on Denver Monday at 1 PM. The Pioneers were 11-10 OT victors earlier today against the top seed Notre Dame.
Like the first meeting, the Terp defense had some problems, but this time, they held their ground, and limited Ryan Brown and Shack Stanwick to as little as possible. John Crawley was a huge boost for the Blue Jays, who played a similar role to Sergio Perkovic in leading a comeback earlier for Notre Dame. Charlie Raffa performed great too, but according to Coach John Tillman, Raffa had a stomach issue in the middle of the game. To me, he didn’t look like he had a problem, but he should be ready to go on Monday against Trevor Baptiste in a heavyweight fight of faceoff men.
From my personal standpoint, I am a good friend of Rambo, as we were both part of La Salle’s teams his junior and senior years. Both years, we went to the PA State Championship in Hershey. We lost in his junior year, but as one of the best teams in the nation the following year, Rambo helped the Explorers take home another State Championship in dominate fashion. He is a talented player, and along with fellow classmates of his, I am pulling for him and Maryland to win on Monday, but it will be tough. The lion better be roaring come Monday afternoon.
