RICHMOND, VA -- Owen Murphy scored in double overtime as No. 5 Maryland men's lacrosse opened its 2024 season with a dramatic 12-11 victory over No. 19 Richmond on Saturday at Robins Stadium. Murphy scored the winning goal on an assist from Ryan Siracusa.
The Terps have won back-to-back season openers against the Spiders and 31 overall season openers in a row dating to the 1994 season. The Terps are a remarkable 95-3-1 all-time in season openers in the 99-year history of the program. This was Maryland's first overtime in a season opener since the 1976 season, when the Terps beat North Carolina, 12-10.
Braden Erksa led the Terps with three goals and Daniel Maltz scored twice. Nine different Terps scored a goal in the game and six recorded multi-point games.
Luke Wierman broke the school record for face-off wins in a career, winning 17-of-29 on Saturday. He now has 654 as he passed Andy Claxton, who had 648 wins from 1989-92.
Wierman also led the Terps with 10 groundballs to add to his all-time total as he currently sits in the top three in program history with 349.
Logan McNaney made his first start at goalie since missing the final 14 games last season due to injury. He made 13 saves and moved up two spots on the all-time saves list.
Dalton Young, Lance Madonna and Aidan O'Neil were multi-goal scorers for the Spiders.
Breaking Down The Action
The Terps have won back-to-back season openers against the Spiders and 31 overall season openers in a row dating to the 1994 season. The Terps are a remarkable 95-3-1 all-time in season openers in the 99-year history of the program. This was Maryland's first overtime in a season opener since the 1976 season, when the Terps beat North Carolina, 12-10.
Braden Erksa led the Terps with three goals and Daniel Maltz scored twice. Nine different Terps scored a goal in the game and six recorded multi-point games.
Luke Wierman broke the school record for face-off wins in a career, winning 17-of-29 on Saturday. He now has 654 as he passed Andy Claxton, who had 648 wins from 1989-92.
Wierman also led the Terps with 10 groundballs to add to his all-time total as he currently sits in the top three in program history with 349.
Logan McNaney made his first start at goalie since missing the final 14 games last season due to injury. He made 13 saves and moved up two spots on the all-time saves list.
Dalton Young, Lance Madonna and Aidan O'Neil were multi-goal scorers for the Spiders.
Breaking Down The Action
- Maryland and Richmond went back and forth trading pairs of goals in the opening 10 minutes. However, the Spiders scored three unanswered before Daniel Kelly ended the run with a goal of his own. Daniel Maltz and Jack Koras were the other goal scorers as Maryland trailed 5-3 at the end of the first quarter.
- Maryland went into halftime leading 7-6 after scoring four consecutive goals of its own in the second quarter. Three of them occurred in the opening three minutes. The Terps' defense also held Richmond scoreless for 15:32, bridging the first and second quarters. Braden Erksa scored twice, Ajax Zappitello added a goal and Eric Spanos converted the only extra-man opportunity of the half into a goal.
- The Terps entered the final quarter of action with a 10-9 lead. Erksa notched a hat trick with his goal on a player-up opportunity, but the Spiders tied the game at 8-8 at 5:16. Ryan Siracusa and Eric Malever added goals down the stretch to key the advantage.
- Maltz scored the go-ahead goal with 11:05 left in the game after the game was tied 10-10. However, Richmond responded with a goal of its own to tie the game at 11-11. The game went to double overtime where Owen Murphy recorded the game-winning goal.
- Maryland is now 95-3-1 all-time in season openers and has won 31 straight dating back to the 1994 season.
- In last year's season opener, the Terps hosted Richmond and ran away with a 15-4 win behind goals from 10 different players and a defensive effort that held Richmond scoreless for 43:31 spanning the first through the fourth quarter.
- The Terps opened the season on the road for the first time since 2017 when they hosted Navy on Feb. 11 and came away with a 15-12 win. The Terps went on to win the National Championship that season.
- Maryland now has recorded a hat trick in 73 of its last 74 games dating to Feb. 2, 2019. This includes a remarkable streak of 67 straight games with a hat trick through the late 2023 season.
- Braden Erksa posted the Terps' first hat trick of the season on Saturday. It was his fifth hat trick of his career after having four last season as a freshman.
- Daniel Maltz (two goals) had the 35th multi-point game of his career. It was Maltz's 24th career game with multiple goals.
- Eric Malever (one goal and one assist) had his 17th multi-point game of his career.
- Braden Erksa (three goals) had his 14th multi-point game in his two years as a Terp. It was his ninth career game with multiple goals and fifth with three goals.
- Jack Koras (one goal and two assists) recorded his 14th multi-point game of his career. Koras had two assists, for his first career game with multiple assists.
- Daniel Kelly (one goal and one assist) had his 13th multi-point game of his career.
- Ryan Siracusa (one goal and one assist) notched his fourth multi-point game of his career.
- Maryland continued its tradition of long poles scoring goals as Ajax Zappitello scored the first pole goal of the season, coming in the second quarter.
- It was Zappitello's fourth career goal, after scoring two last season.
- In 2023, the Terps had seven pole goals and in 2022, the team had 10.
- Luke Wierman became the program's all-time faceoff winner. With 17 wins today, he has 654 in his career passing Andy Claxton (1989-92) and claiming sole possession of the record. He set the record on a win with 5:16 left in the third quarter.
- Wierman is also climbing up the career groundballs list and is one of only three Terps in history to scoop up 300 or more groundballs. He picked up 10 today and has 349 in his career. Wierman needs 33 to pass Brian Haggerty (1996-99) for second all-time.
- Logan McNaney surpassed Dan Morris (2014-18) and Steve Kavoit (1991-92) for sixth on the all-time saves list. With 13 in the game, he now has 419 for his career. He is also 55 from passing Brian Phipps (2007-2010) and 81 saves away from becoming just the fourth Terp ever to eclipse 500 career saves.
- Daniel Maltz moved up the career goals and points list after recording two goals. He sits at No. 21 on the all-time goals list with 92, passing Jay Carlson. Maltz also claimed the No. 34 spot on the all-time points list with 125 in his career, passing Alan Lowe with 124.
- Since John Tillman took over the program in 2011, Maryland has won 152 of the 172 games in which it has scored 10 or more goals for a .884 winning percentage.
- Maryland went 10-2 in 2023 when scoring 10+ with wins over Richmond, Syracuse, Princeton, Albany, Virginia, Penn State, Ohio State, twice over Rutgers, and at Johns Hopkins.
- Maryland is also 113-17 (.869) since 2015 when scoring at least 10 goals
- 2: Maryland had two extra-goals in the game, going 2-for-4 on the man-up.
- 4: The Terps are 4-0 all-time against the Spiders.
- 8: Maryland had nine different goal scorers in the game.
- 15:32: Maryland's defense had a span of keeping Richmond scoreless for 15:32 in the first half.
- 40: Wierman won double-figure face-offs for the 40th time in his career.
- 73: The Terrapins have had a player record a hat trick in 73 of the last 74 games.
- 95: Maryland has won 95 season openers in its program's history.
- 99: Saturday's game kicked off the 99th season of Maryland men's lacrosse.
- 654: Luke Wierman set the school record for face-off wins in a career with 17 wins in the game to give him 654 in his career, passing Andy Claxton (648).
- The Terps open their home schedule next Saturday as Loyola comes to SECU Stadium. That game faces off at Noon and will be seen on Big Ten Plus.
