COLLEGE PARK — — The UMBC men's lacrosse team's search for a season-turning win chugs along for at least another week.
No. 8 Maryland scored the first four goals en route to a commanding 15-6 victory over the visiting Retrievers before 2,836 at Byrd Stadium on Friday night.
UMBC has lost four straight contests after opening the season with a 16-10 win against Presbyterian on Feb. 19. The team has been outscored, 66-25, in those setbacks.
Despite the Retrievers' lethargic start, the Terps (5-1) were determined not to take their opponent lightly.
"They've beaten us, and I think our team as a whole used that as motivation going into this game,' said senior Grant Catalino, who tied career highs with six goals and seven points. "I think [the seniors] were [1-2], and in the two games they beat us, they beat us at home once and kind of took it to us at their place our freshmen year. So it's always a big game."
Any hope the Retrievers (1-4) had of potentially upending Maryland was extinguished within the first 3 minutes, 38 seconds as the hosts scored two goals and eventually two more to take a 4-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
UMBC sophomore Scott Jones, who started at attack instead of his customary midfield position, ended the drought 2:17 into the second quarter when he banged home a pass from junior attackman Rob Grimm to make it 4-1.
But the Terps scored five consecutive times before both sides exchanged goals in the final 33 seconds of the second quarter. Maryland held the Retrievers scoreless in the first and third quarters.
Coach John Tillman said he was pleased to see the Terps start fast against UMBC.
"We felt like they were going to play hard regardless," he said. "But we felt like after the last couple weeks that if we could jump on them and seize control, that would really be in our favor."
Catalino's third goal of the contest — with 1:39 left in the second quarter — made him the 12th player in the program's 86-year history to score 100 goals in a career.
Junior midfielder Joe Cummings set a career best with four goals, and senior attackman Ryan Young, junior midfielder Drew Snider and sophomore midfielder Kevin Cooper had two assists each.
Jones recorded his second hat trick of the season, while Grimm finished with one goal and two assists. Senior attackman Jamie Kimbles compiled two assists.
However, unlike last Saturday when he delivered some eye-opening criticism about his team's play in a 16-5 loss to Johns Hopkins at the Face-Off Classic, coach Don Zimmerman sounded encouraged about the Retrievers' effort.
"To me, it's a whole different feeling," he said. "I think that our guys had a good week of practice. I think we came over here with the right attitude. We continue to make some mental mistakes and part of that is youth. But part of that is also that guys need to be more disciplined and understand what you can and can't do within the parameters of our system. I don't question our team's effort. What we talked about inside was, we don't like this feeling, and what we have to do is work harder in practice and do the things in practice and then bring them out on the game field and see how they work out."
Notes: Maryland played without senior attackman Travis Reed, who injured his shoulder in an 8-4 win against Towson last Saturday. "He's seen a couple different people just to make sure we're good with it," Tillman said, adding that Reed would likely sit out Sunday's home game against St. Joseph's. "So we're not going to put him in a tough spot." Reed, who registered seven goals and six assists in four starts, was replaced by sophomore Owen Blye, who had made five starts in the midfield. Junior Drew Snider took Blye's spot on the first midfield with juniors Jake Bernhardt and Cummings. … In addition to Jones, the Retrievers also made some moves in their starting lineup. Sophomore Joe Lusgarten joined Grimm and Jones on attack. Freshman Zach Linkous occupied Jones' spot on the starting midfield with sophomores Dave Brown and Scott Hopmann. And junior Aaron Verardi joined senior David Stock and junior Tim Shaeffer as the starting defensemen. … The Terps collected their third consecutive win after falling, 9-8, in overtime to Duke on March 5. They have also won the last two meetings with their in-state rivals and lead the overall series, 26-7. … The win was the first time Maryland had held serve at home against UMBC since an 11-7 decision on March 17, 2007.
