Lasting Image, Resolute Defense Carry Maryland into History Books

Each single day, a photograph elegant in each simplicity and message awaited Maryland’s defensive gamers. Earlier than every 6 a.m. elevate, every apply, every recreation, a glimpse of the Rentschler Area scoreboard on Memorial Day 2021 stared again on the Terrapins. It was inescapable: “Virginia 17, Maryland 16.”

It was additionally unforgettable. How might anybody have amnesia about coming so near a nationwide title? The day by day memory-jogging was defensive coordinator Jesse Bernhardt’s thought, and few are higher certified to invoke Maryland’s legacy of proficient objective prevention than the previous All-American.

“We gave up 17 targets final 12 months, and that’s horrendous for a Maryland protection,” defensive midfielder Roman Puglise mentioned. “I don’t assume it was concerning the loss. I believe it was, ‘Let’s get again to our requirements and who we’re. Let’s do that factor proper.’”

Maryland obtained again to its requirements. It did nearly every little thing proper from begin to end. And it discovered itself proper again in East Hartford, Connecticut, almost a 12 months to the day of its final likelihood to shut out an ideal season with a unique ending.

Whereas the Terps had been lauded for his or her prodigious offense all 12 months, it will be a resolute protection that carried Maryland to its fourth NCAA match title.

“It wasn’t fairly, however who the hell cares? We’re champs.”

— Roman Puglise

IT DIDN’T MATTER WHAT TOWN Maryland discovered itself in all season. If the Terps had been on the street, there was one factor coach John Tillman might rely on taking place the morning of each recreation.

When he went downstairs on the staff resort for breakfast, Brett Makar would already be there speaking to his household.

Memorial Day was no totally different. Tillman wakened earlier than most of his gamers, permitting them to sleep in late after a weather-delayed semifinal two days earlier in opposition to Princeton. However there was Makar, on the telephone.

“Should you’re trying on the All-American boy, I don’t assume I’ve ever heard him swear,” Tillman mentioned.

Properly earlier than the season started — and nicely earlier than photos of a New England scoreboard adorned his locker in Faculty Park — Makar emerged as a pivotal management determine for Maryland. The Terps graduated Nick Grill after final season, and Makar was heading into his fourth 12 months in this system.

But it was extra than simply his flip. A starter since his first recreation as a freshman, Makar was clearly the subsequent in an extended line of high-end defensemen. He performed with Curtis Corley, who earlier was teammates with Tim Muller and Matt Dunn, who performed with Casey Ikeda and Michael Ehrhardt, who had been a part of a defensive unit that featured Bernhardt at lengthy pole.

The lineage issues in a program that’s produced not less than one All-American defenseman or long-stick midfielder yearly since 1999. And Makar embodies it.

“He bleeds Maryland in every little thing,” Bernhardt mentioned. “You see that in the way in which he performs. It’s the way in which he talks about his teammates, the way in which he talks about Maryland as a program. He sort of has that all-encompassing Terpness to him.”

“Terpness” covers lots in Tillman’s program, together with a single-minded deal with the instant process at hand that always appears robotic. But because the calendar turned to Could, it was exhausting for anybody in Maryland’s locker room to overlook the undergirding drive.

It was very true for Makar and Logan Wisnauskas, the hyper-focused attackman who usually possesses little curiosity in reflecting on the previous. They had been the 2 Terps with postgame media duties after the title recreation loss in 2021, a chore neither of them forgot.

“Me and Logan all week, all month, have been sending the image forwards and backwards of us doing media final 12 months with the headline, ‘Maryland loses nationwide title,’” Makar mentioned. “Simply that picture has been caught in my head.”

They had been hardly the one veterans who carried the top of 2021 with them. There was Matt Rahill, who toggled between lengthy pole and shut protection early in his profession earlier than discovering a spot as a glue man amidst greater names as a fifth-year senior.

Equally, John Geppert frolicked at shut protection earlier than settling at lengthy stick and was in his fourth 12 months in this system. Transfers like Jake Higgins (Cleveland State) and Alex Smith (Hartford) helped Maryland rebuild a short-stick defensive midfield unit that light after the 2017 championship.

And in a twist unexpected previous to the autumn, offensive mainstay Bubba Fairman selected to make use of his pandemic bonus 12 months of eligibility as a defensive midfielder. It wasn’t a gimmick. Together with his athleticism, the Utah native developed into an asset at a place he had performed solely sparingly earlier than.

After which there’s the man who proved a bit ingenuity, loads of stubbornness and doubtless a good bit of ache tolerance was the right combination for a memorable Memorial Day.

IT WAS FUNNY IN ITS OWN WAY, not less than to Puglise. He had completed the identical factor, recreation after recreation, for 5 years. Slide and jab. Slide and jab. Solely this time, in a nationwide semifinal of all occasions, his proper hand took the worst of it.

Puglise was again within the locker room by the top of the primary quarter in his penultimate faculty recreation. Maryland was on its technique to successful, and there was no likelihood after the earlier 12 months he wasn’t getting on the sector. He was outfitted with a contraption that was half forged, half glove and returned on Memorial Day.

Like others on the protection, Puglise, whom Bernhardt described as “one of the crucial alpha males” to go by this system, discovered inspiration (and a few irritation) in how the Terps surrendered their most targets in a postseason recreation since 2005 to cap the earlier 12 months.

However Puglise additionally held in thoughts an echo of what it was like when he first arrived on campus late in the summertime of 2017. He noticed all the trimmings of a title staff, however by no means obtained to expertise them by his personal work.

“It’s a extremely bizarre dynamic becoming a member of a staff that simply received a nationwide championship,” he mentioned. “They’re going to the White Home and doing all these items within the fall. It’s bizarre being a freshman and [realizing] that is what’s anticipated now.”

It takes some knowns — the Makars, the Rahills, the Puglises — to make a title run occur. But it surely additionally requires nice if not fully anticipated developments to unfold.

Whereas it didn’t straight happen on protection, the ascension of Luke Wierman was a kind of. Wierman was a sub-.500 faceoff man as a redshirt freshman in 2021. He ranked second nationally on the X with a .661 proportion in 2022, considerably tilting the sector within the Terps’ favor.

Not each breakout is kind of so recognizable. With Grill’s departure, Maryland had one emptiness within the beginning lineup. In stepped Ajax Zappitello, a sophomore whose added energy and technically sound play received the job this spring. Bernhardt and Tillman knew there can be some on-the-job coaching, and the 12 months wasn’t fully even for the Oregonian. However Zappitello improved because the 12 months unfolded, and his efforts in holding Virginia star Connor Shellenberger with out a level within the quarterfinals proved one of many season’s finest defensive efforts.

Zappitello was sharp within the remaining 4, however nobody on the Maryland protection was higher than goalie Logan McNaney. After making a career-high 19 saves within the semifinal in opposition to Princeton, he tacked on one other 17 stops within the 9-7 defeat of Cornell within the title recreation. “I believe he performed the 2 finest video games of his profession the final two video games,” Puglise mentioned.