Saved by an offensive spurt in the final quarter of the game, the Boston University lacrosse team turned an 11-4 deficit against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County into a 12-11 win on Saturday.
When the Terriers (6-4, 2-0 America East) left the field at halftime, they were down a modest 7-4 to the team that knocked them out of the America East playoffs in the first round last year. But at the start of the second half the Retrievers (4-6, 1-1 America East) came out strong, scoring four unassisted goals to take the 11-4 lead at the 18:11 mark.
“I think our mindset wasn’t great at that moment,” said BU coach Liz Robertshaw. “We tried to make some adjustments with players, we tried to make some adjustments on play calls and they weren’t working.”
Freshman attack Mallory Collins broke a nearly 20-minute scoreless streak for BU fewer than two minutes later. She found the back of the net off a pass from senior attack Catie Tilton with 16:28 remaining. From there, the BU offense went on a hot streak. Two unassisted goals from junior attack Danielle Etrasco in less than a minute pulled BU within four.
“From that point on [after the first goal and the subsequent goals] we just sift away,” Robertshaw said. “It wasn’t that we were trying to rush goals, which was something that I thought we did earlier in the game. Once we got that first goal in the second half we just got more focused and I thought we were a little bit better execution-wise and we gave ourselves more looks at the cage by getting the ball back repeatedly.”
Two more goals, assisted by Etrasco and scored by senior attack Molly Swain and junior midfielder Kristen Mogavero in just more than a minute halved the four-point UMBC lead with 8:28 left. BU earned the victory through another goal from Etrasco, one from Collins and, finally, one from senior midfielder Annie Stookesberry assisted by Collins with 1:36 left.
Etrasco recorded six points in the game, with four goals and two assists. Only one of those points came outside of the final push, an unassisted goal with 12:48 remaining in the first half that made it a 5-3 game in favor of the Retrievers. Etrasco also won three draws, one of three Terriers to do that, along with sophomore midfielder Sydney Godett and freshman midfielder Kelsey Marafioti.
Robertshaw said she was impressed with her play toward the end of the game.
“I thought she did a really good job of challenging with the knowledge that they were going to double her and fed the ball well, which I don’t think she did as well in the first half,” Robertshaw said “I felt that she really stepped up and played the way that we expect her to play during that set.”
In addition to Etrasco’s scoring, Swain, Mogavero and Collins collected two goals apiece. Collins also had one assist, but Tilton once again led the Terriers in that category with four. Godett and sophomore goalkeeper Christina Sheridan captured four ground balls. Collins followed the pair with three.
Sheridan played all 60 minutes in goal, allowing all 11 UMBC goals and making seven saves, four in the first half and three in the second.
Sophomore Kristen Bilney scored four goals for UMBC and assisted another, while also winning four draw controls. Senior Emily Coady, senior Alicia Krause and junior Lindsay Cox each scored twice. Freshman Abby Wilson also won four draw controls while senior Jessica Harkey controlled four ground balls.
The Retrievers played two goalkeepers in the cage. Junior Kendall Mason was in for 37:37, allowing six goals and making six saves. Freshman Anna Barnett played the other 22:23, allowing the other six BU goals and making four saves.
With the win, BU remains undefeated in conference play and turned a four-game winning streak into a five-game run, last losing against the University of Notre Dame on the first day of spring break at Nickerson Field. The Terriers are one of only two undefeated teams in America East – the other is Stony Brook University – and are the only team with more than one win over conference opponents.
Robertshaw, however, was dismissive of the Terriers position.
“I don’t put a lot of weight into standings and rankings with this team because we’re very task-oriented,” she said. “We’re focused in winning those little battles. Winning draw controls, ground balls, the 50-50 balls and that has to be our focus.”
