Terps use group effort to top Mids

After winning 8-7 against Navy in double overtime, the upbeat attitude made sense, but the Terrapins had something even bigger to be happy about.

Against No. 6-ranked Navy the young Terp team used a formula they’ve worked on all season: use a slew of resilient contributors instead relying on a few studs in the attack like they did last year.

“We have a bunch of guys that are all participating and are all helping,” coach Dave Cottle said. “We have some guys that are interchangeable parts and we are starting to get a better feel for who our guys are.”

Last year, the Terrapins went to the NCAA final four by feeding the ball mostly to Maryland all-time leading scorer Joe Walters. It worked, but at the end of the season Walters and other key offensive contributors graduated. So the Terps started the season forced to think of a new identity and on Friday night against Navy, in front of 14,625 fans, the Terps showed the best of this year’s stuff.

On offense they used sound passing and patience, which although it took them nearly the entire first quarter to score their first goal, they had six different players score. On defense they made huge stops late in the game and forced Navy to often take distant, low-percentage shots.

The Terps’ group effort, patience and resiliency got rewarded when midfielder Drew Evans turned and made a beautiful game-tying shot with seven seconds left in the fourth quarter. Then the Terps were rewarded with a win on a goal by sophomore Dan Groot in the second overtime.

“It was probably the best goal I scored in my life,” Groot said. “Going into Hopkins this is a huge boost for us because this gives us more confidence, we would have been on a two game losing streak had we lost this game.”

The Terps will try to use the momentum when they play Johns Hopkins on Saturday. Meanwhile, Navy faces Army on the same day at noon — also a big game, because after starting the season with eight straight wins, Navy has now dropped two in a row.