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COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Numbers rarely lie. Simply glancing at Syracuse’s shot percentage against Maryland Saturday would make it easy to tell how the game ended.

The Orange took 41 shots and scored seven goals on the Terrapins, resulting in a ghastly .171 shot percentage — their lowest since a 7-5 win over Vermont on Feb. 4, 2023. It was their worst shooting performance of the Joey Spallina era. It was their lowest single-game goal output in over two years. But it wasn’t surprising in the slightest. That’s what Maryland does to teams.

“We expected the outcome of that,” UMD attack/midfielder Eric Spanos said after SU fell to the Terrapins 11-7.

Under head coach John Tillman, even the attackmen know they’re likely receiving heaps of assistance from UMD’s feisty defense on any given day. Locking down the country’s best attacking groups is the M.O. for Tillman’s No. 6 Maryland (3-0, 0-0 Big Ten) squad, and that was certainly the case against No. 2 Syracuse (3-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) Saturday afternoon.

Tillman and Terrapins defensive coordinator Jesse Bernhardt cooked a flawless design to stave off the Orange; they stacked their lineup with defensive-minded players, pinned a long pole on Spallina at every turn, clogged SU’s midfield with short-stick defenders and let goalie Logan McNaney, who racked up 12 saves, take care of the rest.

Syracuse head coach Gary Gait said the Orange were inaccurate and that Maryland’s strategy of using most of the shot clock on each attacking possession made it tough for them to find a rhythm. Both were true. The Terrapins’ defense, however, forced SU into difficult shooting angles and stopped every single opportunity in transition.

“Coach Tillman always does a great job getting his team prepared,” Gait said. “They executed a slow-down game… They were able to play their game and it worked out for them.”

Did the Orange have a rough outing? Yes. Was Maryland a terrible matchup for them? Definitely.

Just look at the history. Tillman is 7-0 against Syracuse since taking over Maryland in 2011. Tillman also boasts a 4-0 record over Gait in head-to-head coaching matchups, beating him each of the last four years, all in mid-February regular-season contests. Even SU’s best performance against a Tillman team — its controversial 13-12 double-overtime loss to UMD last season — featured former star Maryland long pole Ajax Zappitello making Spallina a non-factor.

Without Zappitello, who was picked third overall in the 2024 Premier Lacrosse League Draft, the Terrapins faced a defensive drop-off in 2025. But Tillman practically clones top-of-the-line defenders in a lab. Before Zappitello, he successfully recruited stud defenders in Brett Makar, Curtis Corley and Tim Muller, among others.

Corley and Muller were crucial to Tillman’s first NCAA title in 2017, while Makar and Zappitello played massive roles on UMD’s undefeated 2022 National Championship team.

Tillman is renowned in college lacrosse for churning out some of the country’s best defenses, though it’s the Terrapins’ signature style of play that makes it all work. They play to the speed of a tortoise, slow and steady wins the race — the perfect caveat to Syracuse’s high-octane, hare-like playstyle.

UMD materializes long attacking possessions while its defense rests before the Terrapins’ long poles and short sticks silence opposing attackmen with tenacious activity. And they always have a goalie who’s at least capable of being a brick wall.

In slower-paced games, like its 10-8 NCAA Quarterfinal defeat to Denver last May, Syracuse often struggles. The Orange have difficulty sustaining an offensive rhythm and resort to firing off-balanced shots and passing through traffic.

Saturday was an example of SU’s offense at its worst. Absolutely nothing worked past halftime. A pair of late second-quarter goals from Spallina, both set up by well-executed screens from midfielder Sam English, put the Orange up 5-4 at the break. Once the Terrapins adjusted to that, Syracuse folded. It mustered two tallies in the final 30 minutes. Its second-half shot-on-goal percentage was a lousy .350. Its only midfielder to score the entire game was Luke Rhoa.

That’s just another day at the office for Tillman and Co., who’ve held all of their first three opponents in 2025 to seven goals. For SU, which entered Saturday with an average of 18.33 goals per game, its offensive shortcomings were a wake-up call.

“We’ve already talked to the team a little bit about it… that we got to step up and put ourselves in a position to make some plays under pressure,” Gait said. “We watched our opponent today make plays when they needed them, and we got to put ourselves in a position to make those plays.”

Tillman doubled down on his program’s style of play postgame. He said Maryland wasn’t necessarily trying to wear Syracuse down, but after watching SU’s early-season film, he knew the Terrapins needed to be extra methodical.

Per Tillman, Bernhardt stalked the Orange’s Lacrosse Reference page, which showed they were among the nation’s best teams in time of possession. On top of that, Tillman was in awe of how the longest SU took to score in its opening three games was barely over two minutes.

It took Syracuse nine minutes and three seconds to score its first goal against Maryland.

“Everyone just pulled their weight,” UMD short-stick midfielder Jack McDonald said.

McDonald, along with long poles Will Schaller and Jackson Canfield, arguably did the heaviest lifting. McDonald picked up a game-best seven ground balls. Schaller man-marked Spallina all afternoon as SU’s star attack was limited to three shots on target — one of which occurred in the second half. Canfield did much of the same, except as the stopper for other lethal threats like Owen Hiltz and Finn Thomson, who were largely ineffective.

Firing on all cylinders, Tillman’s latest defensive group is correctly layered to beat a team like Syracuse. Saturday proved that.

Tillman spoke postgame on his 4-0 record over Gait, downplaying the notion he has an advantage over Syracuse’s head man.

“Well, I haven’t scored any goals,” Tillman joked. “Sometimes our record against teams maybe is a little better or worse, but there’s nothing to it.”

The easy answer for Gait’s team is to move on. Tillman has SU’s number, though, and that’s a concern for the Orange come May when they’re guaranteed to face a defense of Maryland’s caliber — or maybe even the Terrapins themselves.

Published on February 16, 2025 at 2:51 am

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews