Postscript from Maryland at Georgetown
The graduation of Dan Groot, Jeremy Sieverts and Jeff Reynolds had many observers questioning the strength of the No. 7 Terps considering that midfield line combined for 50 goals and 24 assists last season.
And while the jury is still out on the current midfield lines, this year’s unit is faring much better than anticipated.
A week after all three midfield lines produced a combined seven goals against Bellarmine, midfielders contributed 10 goals and one assist in Saturday’s 15-13 comeback win against No. 9 Georgetown.
Senior Will Yeatman, an attackman who started in the midfield, led the way with three goals, sophomore Jake Bernhardt registered two goals and one assist, and senior Adam Sear posted two goals.
Junior Scott LaRue, sophomore Drew Snider and freshman John Haus each scored a goal, and Bernhardt is feeling optimistic that the midfield unit can provide support to the potent attack.
"Everyone has been doubting us in the midfield," he said. "Today, we inverted a lot against Georgetown, but the midfielders stepped up big time. ... I felt like us as a midfield, we had to take a little bit on our shoulders and step up."
Other notes:
*The Hoyas (0-1) opened the season with a new goalie as sophomore C.T. Fisher took the starting chores from senior Jack Davis, last year’s starter. Fisher made nine saves, which was one more than what Maryland senior Brian Phipps finished with, but Fisher was saddled with the loss after surrendering eight goals in the second half. Many of the Terps attacked Fisher with low shots.
"We saw that we could shoot low on him, and that showed throughout the course of the game," Yeatman said. Georgetown coach Dave Urick sounded pleased with Fisher’s debut. "I’m sure that if he looks back at it, there are going to be maybe a couple that he thought he should’ve gotten, but didn’t," Urick said. "But I thought he did fine."
*At the end of the third quarter and towards the end of the game, the Terps players surrounded one person and jostled, yelled, and celebrated their accomplishment, which was the program’s first comeback from a four-goal deficit since March 25, 2006 when they rallied to defeat North Carolina, 9-6. That person? Maryland coach Dave Cottle. "I think we just smacked each other around," he said with a smile. "It was one of those mosh-pit things that we did."
*Yeatman has started in the midfield in both of Maryland’s contests this season, and while the 6-foot-6, 250-pound senior isn’t asked to play defense unless he has to, he said he is open to staying in the midfield. "I told Coach Cottle at the beginning of the season, ‘Wherever you need me,’" he said. "Sometimes we might be light on midfielder or anywhere [else] on the field, but wherever anyone needs me, that’s where I’ll be."
*For the second year in a row, Hoyas defenseman Barney Ehrmann pretty much quieted his assignment. After shutting out Yeatman last season, Ehrmann, the preseason Big East Defensive Player of the Year, limited Terps junior attackman Grant Catalino to one goal and two assists. Ehrmann, a Baltimore native and Gilman graduate who played despite being questionable because of a sore right ankle, said his 6-foot-6, 220-pound frame comes in handy. "My size helps a lot. Those are really big guys, and they do a great job of using their bodies to get to the goal," Ehrmann said of Yeatman and Catalino (6-4, 225). "So my size helps a lot, and just watching film and studying it and knowing their offense so that I can anticipate what they’re trying to do."
