COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The No. 6/6 University of Pennsylvania men's lacrosse team had everything going the way it wanted through the first 38 minutes of Saturday's game at the University of Maryland. The Quakers were getting big numbers from their top guys, goals were coming in bunches, and senior face-off man Kyle Gallagher was doing his thing on the X.
 
When Sean Lulley scored an unassisted goal with 7:02 left in the third quarter—his team-leading fourth of the game—Penn's lead was 15-9 and it looked like the Red and Blue might finally get its first win (in 16 tries) over the blueblood Terps.
 
Instead, No. 4 Maryland (3-0)—which overcame a five-goal, fourth-quarter deficit to win in overtime at Richmond last weekend—turned on the afterburners. They won faceoffs. They scored goals. They took advantage of Penn penalties. In all, they scored eight goals—two in a 57-second span in the third quarter, then six across just 7:18 of game time in the fourth.
 
It was enough. Penn, which had 15 goals in the first 38 minutes of Saturday's game, went scoreless across the final 22 in falling, 17-15.
 
Notes
*Junior Sean Lulley led Penn with four goals and two assists for six points on Saturday.
 
*Sophomore All-American Sam Handley picked up where he left off from his historic freshman season, scoring Penn's first goal just 42 second into the game and ending the day with three goals and two assists.
 
*Sophomore Dylan Gergar also had three goals and two assists on Saturday, his fourth collegiate hat trick.
 
*Senior Adam Goldner scored two goals and dished out two assists, extending both his goal-scoring and point-scoring streaks to 26 games dating back to the 2018 season.
 
*Senior Drew Robshaw and junior Jack Schultz, both of whom entered the 2020 season with one career goal, scored goals on Saturday as did junior Mitch Bartolo.
 
*Junior Ben Bedard, who entered the 2020 season with two career points, doubled that number with a pair of assists on Saturday.
 
*Senior All-American Kyle Gallagher was 18-35 on the X on Saturday and collected 14 ground balls.
 
*In his first game between the pipes for Penn, sophomore University of Virginia transfer Patrick Burkinshaw made nine saves (seven in the first half).
 
How It Happened
It took Penn all of 42 seconds to open the scoring on the 2020 season, Kyle Gallagher winning the opening faceoff and Sam Handley bulling through his defender for an unassisted goal. Maryland got that one back four minutes later when Bubba Fairman scored from up top, and then the Terps went ahead on a fast-break goal from long pole Matt Rahill.
 
Penn scored the next three goals, needing just 1:37 of game for Sean Lulley, Mitch Bartolo and Drew Robshaw to put the Quakers up, 4-2. Maryland got one of them back, Jared Bernhardt scoring unassisted, but Dylan Gergar opened up his 2020 account unassisted and then Lulley finished a feed from Handley in front to put Penn up, 6-3. The treams traded a pair of goals in the final 1:43 of the period—including Lulley's tally right at the buzzer—and after one active quarter of play Penn's lead was 8-5.
 
Gergar made it 9-5 nearly five minutes into the second quarter, but Bernhardt and Kyle Long scored 35 seconds apart to pull Maryland within 9-7. However, Penn blew its lead back out to four when Jack Schultz and Handley (from Adam Goldner) scored 38 seconds apart. Bernhardt made it 11-8 just 44 seconds after Handley's goal, and then three minutes later Maryland scored a man-up goal as Daniel Maltz got on the scoresheet. Gergar got it back in the final minute of the half, and the Quakers took a 12-9 lead to the locker room.
 
Goldner got back to what he does best—sniping—early in the third quarter, converting a Lulley feed 51 seconds in and a Handley feed 1:57 later. More than five minutes went by before another goal was scored in the game, and it came from Lulley unassisted to give the Quakers a 15-9 lead with 7:02 to play.
 
Another three minutes would go by scoreless, and at that point Maryland had gone more than 12 minutes without a goal. Thus it seemed relatively harmless when Logan Wisnauskas and Maltz scored a pair of goals 57 seconds apart to make the score 15-11 after three quarters.
 
The fourth quarter was a whole different story.
 
Anthony DeMaio started the Terps' scoring parade 1:19 into the period off a Bernhardt feed, and then back-to-back penalties by Penn led to a pair of man-up goals 3:22 apart by Maltz to cut the Quakers' lead to 15-14. Just 1:05 after that, DeMaio again scored to knot things up at 15-15, and then 47 seconds later Maryland took its first lead since 2-1 when Jack Brennan scored his first of the day unassisted. Less than a minute later, Maltz finished a Jake Smith feed and the Terps were up, 17-15.
 
Suddenly forced to chase the game, Penn were continuously stymied by Maryland goalkeeper Chris Brandau. The Terp keeper had 19 saves on the day, 13 of them coming in the second half and five of them in the fourth quarter on a day when Penn outshot Maryland, 48-40.
 
Up Next
Penn is back on the road, facing current No. 11/13 Duke in a neutral-site game in Charlotte, N.C. Tickets can be purchased here for the game, which will take place at the Matthews Sportsplex Stadium.