The second-seeded Maryland men’s lacrosse team had been playing with an absence of passion over the first quarter and a half of its Big Ten tournament semifinal against No. 3 seed Penn State on Thursday night in Columbus, Ohio. Then the Terrapins lost their leading scorer, Braden Erksa, for the remainder of the game following a violent collision. The Terrapins never recovered and fell, 19-9.
Erksa, a sophomore attackman, was taken off the field on a stretcher with 8:18 left in the second quarter after the hit. He was able to lift his right arm and raise his thumb as he exited, drawing applause from both benches and fans at Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium.
Erksa was transported to a hospital for further evaluation but had movement in his extremities, Terrapins Coach John Tillman said during a Zoom call with reporters, adding, “I think that gives you reason for optimism, but I don’t have much more than that."
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The sequence led to Maryland’s athletic training staff sprinting onto the playing surface to attend to Erksa, the 2023 Big Ten freshman of the year. It stemmed from a hit by Penn State defenseman Alex Ross. Erksa’s head snapped back, and he fell hard to the ground, his helmet dislodged. Play was stopped for roughly 10 minutes.
Without its most reliable goal scorer, the Terrapins (8-5) managed only a modest rally after falling behind 12-3 with 11:36 to play in the third quarter. Four consecutive goals, including three in a 50-second span, led to outburst of emotion along the Maryland sideline, but Penn State (11-3) reeled off a 5-0 run to blunt the rally.
The Terrapins thus headed back to College Park to await not only updates on Erksa’s condition but also the unveiling of the NCAA tournament field Sunday night.
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“It’s always tough when a guy goes down,” Tillman said. “I think it’s a little bit harder when a guy — when you see a guy get carted off like that, right? We’re human beings, and I think there’s always a sense of, like, thinking the worst. Braden, everybody loves him. This is a great group of young men. They really care about each other.”
Attackman Matt Traynor scored a game-high five goals for the Nittany Lions, who advanced to Saturday night’s championship game. They will face No. 4 seed Michigan, which upset top-seeded Johns Hopkins, 10-7, in the first semifinal. Four other Nittany Lions players scored multiple goals in just Penn State’s second win in 43 games in the series with Maryland.
Attackman Daniel Maltz and midfielder Eric Spanos each had two goals for the Terrapins, who permitted their most goals this season. Goalie Logan McNaney yielded every Penn State goal before exiting in the final minutes with eight saves.
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The first Big Ten tournament meeting between the schools since 2017 also was a rematch of a thriller during the regular season. The Terrapins entered the game in State College, Pa., on the final day of March having lost three of four and in jeopardy of falling out of contention for an NCAA tournament berth.
Trailing by five goals late in the first half, Maryland rallied for a 13-11 triumph to jump-start a three-game winning streak that drastically altered the Terrapins’ fortunes.
Maryland again found itself trailing early in the latest installment of the long-standing rivalry after the Nittany Lions opened the game with three straight goals, leading to a timeout from Tillman. The margin could have been even more lopsided if McNaney hadn’t made a handful of stops, several from close range.
Maltz’s goal off a faceoff win and an assist from faceoff specialist Luke Wierman finally put Maryland on the scoreboard, but scoring chances otherwise remained in short supply.
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It continued a troubling trend of stagnant offense that plagued the Terrapins this year, capped by a 7-5 loss to Johns Hopkins in the regular season finale April 20 in Baltimore.
“Obviously we’ve got to break down film and teach what we can and improve,” Tillman said. “I don’t care the time of the year. There’s always opportunities to get better. There’s always opportunities to learn, and we’re going to keep working. We’re going to keep learning. We’re going to keep reaching. We’ve got to do a better job, and that starts with me. When you lose, it always falls back on the coaches."
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