COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- In what unfolded as a 60-minute heavyweight fight between a champion and a challenger that proved, one day, it could become one, the plucky
Robert Morris men's lacrosse team, finally, on its biggest stage to date, went down swinging.
Redshirt junior attackman
Jimmy Perkins registered his fourth hat trick in six games and shared the team lead with four ground balls, but No. 2/1 Maryland, the top seed in the 2018 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament, slipped past No. 18/19 Robert Morris, 14-11, in its NCAA First Round matchup at Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The Pittsburgh prodigy raised eyebrows far beyond Colonial Country by sparking RMU (13-5) to a 6-3 halftime lead. Social media was quickly abuzz of the Northeast Conference Tournament champions' potential for a historic upset, including an expression of solidarity from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), whose unprecedented victory over No. 1 seed Virginia in the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament as a No. 16 seed put their fellow mid-major on the national radar.
It took 11 first-half saves from Dan Morris to keep this contest from getting any further out of hand for the defending Division I champs. The Terrapins (13-4), ultimately, rallied behind four goals from Tewaaraton Award finalist Connor Kelly--three in the third quarter alone--plus a pair of goals and an assist from Jared Bernhardt after the relentless Robert Morris defense scarcely let them touch the ball in the first 30 minutes, much less break onto the scoresheet.
"We went in with a pretty simple gameplan, and the guys have done a great job, especially at the end of the season, executing what we challenge them with. Today, defensively, we knew we needed to stop No. 1 (Kelly) and 10 (Bernhardt), and we did a good job keeping the ball out of their sticks in the first half by dominating the possession game a little bit more," said head coach
Andrew McMinn. "Offensively, like we said, we wanted to keep it simple, with getting our transition looks and, also, really working the two-man game as much as we could. They did a great job of executing that and just fell short in that second half."
After the Terps scored to break the stalemate just before the midpoint of the first quarter, the Colonials calmly rattled off four in a row.
Adrian Torok-Orban found Perkins wide open at X, and his pump fake created an easy wraparound goal that tied the game with 5:25 to play. Junior midfielder
Shane Majewski scored another greasy goal, his third of the tournament, from the close right wing to give RMU its first lead 1:17 later, and
Eddie Smith closed out the first frame with 1:38 remaining, when he spun off a defender and beat Morris from in tight on the left side for his fifth goal of the season.
A successful dodge by Perkins and a left-wing drive to the net by Perkins led to the 30th of the year for the former Quaker Valley High School standout and led to heart palpitations for many of the 1,089 in attendance with 11:38 to go in the half.
"We continued to just treat it like any other game, and I think that's been our strong point this season," Perkins said. "The core value we possess, as a program, is not treating it any different, and today, coming out to start, we didn't let the nerves get the best of us. We just treated it like any other day, and we came out flying."
Kelly stopped the bleeding for the hosts with his first tally off the ensuing faceoff. However, after RMU saw its lead trimmed to one, its other potent redshirt junior attackman,
Matt Schmidt, answered promptly with his team-high 35th goal, making it a 5-3 game from the left elbow with 5:56 left, and it took just six seconds for rookie
Kyle Vince to win the draw and flip it to
Mitchell Wales, whose uncontested fourth long-pole goal as a senior put UMD on notice.
Robert Morris went 5-for-11 on faceoffs in the first half, also building a 17-15 edge in ground balls while going 9-for-9 on clearing attempts and out-shooting Maryland by a head-turning 22-10 margin.
Senior defenseman
Zachary Bryant was chiefly responsible for guarding Kelly, leading a unit that finished 2018 tied for fifth in D-I with its team goals-against average of 8.00, obliterating last year's RMU single-season record of 10.31.
"It's been awesome. I've been playing with
Zac Christianson since my freshman year, and
Will Ewing since his freshman year. That's a lot of maturity throughout the years, just having those two on the back end," Bryant said. "Playing with them, we've grown...and that sense of chemistry has definitely grown. I know I can trust them as much as they trust me."
The Oshawa, Ontario native will get the chance to prolong his career with the Ohio Machine of Major League Lacrosse (MLL), having become just the fifth player in program history to be drafted into the outdoor circuit. Meanwhile, Christianson caps his collegiate career with 58 starts all-time, surpassing
Luke Laszkiewicz '16 for the program record Sunday, and Ewing ended his junior campaign with career highs in ground balls (19) and caused turnovers (13), playing a little over an hour south of his hometown of Smithsburg, Maryland.
Bryant finishes second in school history in caused turnovers with 77 all-time in 60 games played. Christianson tied for third all-time with 65 CT's scattered over 62 appearances in an RMU uniform, and he also came in eighth all-time in ground balls, with 126.
He, Christianson and junior long stick midfielder
Jack Toomb combined to cause 80 turnovers this season, putting them among the nation's top seven trios in that category. Robert Morris ranked third in the NCAA with its average of 9.39 CT's per game.
The heartbeat of that defense, junior goalkeeper
Alex Heger, was named Inside Lacrosse Magazine Media All-America Honorable Mention afterward. Despite being sidelined for the second straight game with a lower-body injury, Heger set a new RMU single-year mark with 12 wins in goal and is tied for the career lead with 24 all-time. He ended his year with a .603 save percentage that ranks second nationally.
Schmidt, joined by
Ryan Smith on the second unit of this year's All-NEC Team, pumped in his second of the game and team-leading 36th of the year for a 7-7 tie with 8:23 to play in the third quarter. Smith drew a double-team to earn the assist, as the sophomore attackman finished with an encouraging six points in four postseason outings.
Those 36 goals tied for the sixth-most in a single season at Robert Morris, and Perkins tied for the third-best season in Colonials history with his 61 points in 2018, which included a new single-year record 30 assists.
Another of their playoff heroes with 12 total points (8 G, 4 A) in those games, he was in no mood to see his career year end with 6:16 left in regulation and RMU trailing, 12-9. Perkins shrewdly split the Maryland defense and tossed the ball into an empty cage to round out the HT.
A little over four minutes earlier, co-captain
Sean Doyle, a senior midfielder playing a stone's throw from his alma mater, DeMatha Catholic High School, had delighted his own voluminous entourage with a goal set up by
Conner Yepsen. Twin middie and fellow senior
Carter Yepsen, who ends up second in Robert Morris history with his 62 games played, got the Colonials within one just 55 seconds into the final period by firing home a wicked rebound of a Schmidt shot past Morris.
Torok-Orban, who ends his career eighth in program lore with 87 goals, got his last inside the final minute on a man-up to provide the final margin.
Although that wasn't enough to extend their storybook season, the Colonials know, with their strong showing against the top-ranked Terps and, previously, their NEC Tournament title, they have raised the profile and expectations of their program going forward.
"We say it all the time: As coaches, we get to do this for a long time, but for these guys, when you're playing, you only get four years to try to do it. I'm just so proud of the work they've put in, and they've earned every ounce of success they've had this year," McMinn said. "It's pretty special to see the work pay off for guys who have been here and are certainly very deserving. It's more about the work [they're] putting in here."
It had always been a professional and personal ambition of McMinn to coach in the NCAA Tournament. Thanks to the 2018 Colonials, who put a single-year program record for wins, including the first-ever NCAA Tournament triumph (Opening Round at Canisius, Wednesday) in team history, on his resume, the seventh-year bench boss got to live that dream.
"To have my family here, that means everything to me. My wife and daughter certainly put in as much effort as we do to be on the road with us," he smiled. "To have these experiences and share them with them is pretty awesome."
Follow the Colonials: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
