Postscript from Towson at Maryland
For all of the good vibes resulting from No. 6 Maryland’s 12-8 victory over intra-state rival Towson at Byrd Stadium in College Park on Saturday, Terps coach Dave Cottle had one concern on his mind.
The first midfield line of seniors Will Yeatman and Adam Sear and sophomore Jake Bernhardt did not record a single point and combined for 0-for-5 shooting. Bernhardt did win 5 of 9 face-offs and collected three ground balls, but Cottle said changes could be coming.
"We’ve got a dilemma with our first," he said. "We’ve got to figure this thing out: who’s the third guy on the first? That’s something we’ve got to fix in the next couple of days. We’ve got to find some guys that can run by some guys. Jake Bernhardt didn’t play as well as he’s played. He did a good job facing off, but he missed a bunch of shots, and I think it affected his game."
That eventually led to Cottle musing about some uncharacteristic displays of emotion from some players. A few players grew frustrated or pouted when plays didn’t go according to plan, and Cottle made a point to address the matter with the team in the locker room after the game.
"We’ve got to man up a little bit," he said. "The message I gave our guys after the game was that I didn’t like our body language from a couple guys when things didn’t go our way. That’s something we have to work on. You can’t let your opponent know that you feel like you should have either had that one or should have made a shot. You’ve got to keep battling, and that’s something we’re going to work on."
Other notes:
* Normally, the fact that junior attackman and leading scorer Grant Catalino did not score a goal or take a shot and finished with just one assist would be enough to cause headaches for Cottle. But the offensive support from other sources was enough to relieve him of any undue pain. "Grant Catalino has more fouls [four] than points," Cottle said. "But that’s a good sign, that we can score 12 goals and Grant [does] not have a goal."
* A good portion of the credit for Catalino’s quiet afternoon goes to Towson sophomore defenseman Michael Landy, who shadowed Catalino. Freshman defenseman Ben Strauss also performed admirably, allowing just two goals to junior attackman Ryan Young. "Their attack is bigger than any defense in the country," Tigers coach Tony Seaman said. "I thought we did a great job on Catalino today. I think he maybe had one assist. He had no goals, and I don’t know if he had a shot. There aren’t many games where he doesn’t get a shot, so we did a good job on him. And I thought our freshman kid Strauss did a great job on [Young]. We just brought him up, and we’re proud of that."
*Towson converted just 50 percent (8-for-16) of its clears Saturday and is now clearing at a 62.7 percent success rate on the season. "I thought they swarmed the ball really well, and it’s one of those kinds of days where you can’t use your quickness anymore – although that’s been a problem of ours so far," Seaman said. "I think we figured some things out at halftime and we did a lot better job in the second half. I think we’ve got that accomplished now, and we’ll be able to handle that better, but you’ve got to give Maryland credit. They hustled their rear ends off."
* Sophomore attackman Matt Lamon made his first start of the season for the Tigers after missing the first two games due to surgery for an emergency appendectomy. Lamon (St. Mary’s) almost scored, but his bullet off the left wing rang off the right post. He should’ve gotten an assist when he sent a skip pass to freshman attackman Matt Hughes alone on the right wing, but Hughes’ shot was blocked by the helmet of senior short-stick defensive midfielder Bryn Holmes. "It was pretty good to have Matty back," Seaman said. "I think he got popped a couple times, and that hurts his stomach right now. But he almost had a terrific goal when he came around and hit the top pipe. But that’s going to help us get better."
* The Terps get Sunday to rest and recover before tangling with Pennsylvania on Monday at 3 p.m. The coaches will meet at noon, and the players are scheduled to arrive at 2 p.m. to study film and participate in a light practice. That’s a quick turnaround, but Cottle pointed out that the Quakers are coming off an even tougher stretch. "They played Saturday in Denver, Sunday in Denver, Wednesday against St. Joe’s, Villanova today, and then they come back Monday and they play Princeton," Cottle said. "Hopefully, they’ve got something on their minds, too."
