Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/18/20
From Press Release
A dominant start helped propel the Villanova men’s lacrosse team over No. 4 Maryland on Tuesday afternoon by a final of 13-12.
The Wildcats never trailed and used a 5-1 run to seize a 13-8 advantage midway through the final period before holding on for the win.
Villanova came out strong netted the first three goals, Keegan Khan set up both Corey McManus and Patrick Daly for the first two and then McManus set up Connor Kirst at the 7:08 mark. Maryland answered back with back-to-back goals by Logan Wisnauskas and then a pair by Jared Bernhardt. During the middle of the four goals Khan netted goal to make the game tied 4-4 at the end of one.
It was Khan again who would net an unassisted man up goal to open the second quarter, Maryland’s Bernhardt would tie it again, but defenseman Patrick Kennedy ran down the field and netted an unassisted goal to push the Wildcats back up with just over five minutes before halftime. The Terrapin’s got one goal but Patrick Daly would set up McManus for the final goal before the break to go up 7-6.
Kirst, the senior captain, came through in the third quarter netted the Wildcats first two goals to push the Wildcats up two. Attackman Patrick Daly score another on a dish from Khan to make it a three-goal game. Maryland’s Wisnauskas would net one before the end of the quarter to make the Villanova lead 10-8.
To open the final quarter Villanova netted three straight goals once again. Colin Crowley netted the first just seconds in and the next two were set up by Kirst. First the midfielder dished the ball to Eric Overbay and then to Daly to push the Villanova lead to five. The Terrapins answered back scoring four goals to make it a one-point game with 38 seconds remaining.
Conor Calderone and Justin Coppola took the final faceoff of the game and it was won by Kennedy but just seconds later Jake Higgins caused Kennedy to turn it over. Maryland called timeout to set up a plan for the final 14 seconds. With just three seconds left a bad pass by Budda Fariman gave the Wildcat’s the ball to close out the win.
In goal sophomore Will Vitton had 14 saves on the day and defenseman Patrick Kennedy had four caused turnovers along with four ground balls. Both Coppola and Dan Fisher (St. Joseph’s prep) took faceoff for Villanova and combined with 12-for-29 with four ground balls.
This is the second win for the Wildcats over the Terrapins in program history and the first inside Villanova Stadium. In 2017 Villanova was able to pick up the overtime road win after Maryland forced overtime scoring a late goal.
Also with his first assist of the game Keegan Khan became the 26th player in program history to reach the 100 point milestone. After today’s game the junior has 104 over his 34 games.
Kyle Long (Springfield-Delco) had two assists and Jake Smith (Avon Grove) scored once for the Terps.
Next Villanova will hit the road and take on the Hofstra Pride on Saturday. Game time in New York is scheduled for 2:00 P.M. and can be seen on LSN.
