COLLEGE PARK — Maryland men’s lacrosse made sure not to get sunk by a bitter foe.

In the 128th installment of one of the most intense rivalries in the sport, the No. 3 Terps took care of visiting Johns Hopkins, 11-8, on Friday night before an announced 10,123 at SECU Stadium.

Maryland (10-2, 3-2 Big Ten) picked up its third victory in its past four games and defeated the Blue Jays for the seventh time in the past nine meetings.

The team improved to 51-67-1 in the all-time series.

Perhaps more importantly, the Terps earned the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Although it shares the same record in the conference as No. 8 Penn State (9-3), Maryland owns the head-to-head tiebreaker courtesy of a 13-8 win on March 29.

If No. 13 Michigan (7-5, 3-1) defeats No. 6 Ohio State (11-2, 3-1) on Saturday, Maryland owns the head-to-head tiebreaker via a 13-8 victory from last Saturday.

If the Buckeyes defeat the Wolverines, the Terps, Michigan and Penn State would finish with the same marks in the league and have defeated each other. So the next tiebreaker would be record against Ohio State, and Maryland is the only one of the three to beat the Buckeyes.

As the No. 2 seed, the Terps can skip next Saturday’s quarterfinal round and get some rest before participating in the semifinals on Thursday, May 1, at Michigan’s U-M Lacrosse Stadium in Ann Arbor.

Maryland junior attackman Braden Erksa, who led all players with five points on four goals and one assist, said that any posturing for the Big Ten Tournament is a steppingstone for the NCAA postseason.

“Our goal is obviously to win a national championship,” he said. “No matter if we get the bye or not, that doesn’t really change our goal. If we can just focus on one game at a time and keep chopping away, I think that we’ll be successful. I don’t really think the bye changes much. It’s going to be great for the guys to get a little bit of rest and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, it’s just you versus the team in front of you. There are a lot more teams standing in our way of our goal.”

In addition to Erksa, senior midfielder Zach Whittier compiled two goals and one assist, and graduate student long-stick midfielder Jack McDonald amassed five ground balls and three caused turnovers.

The Blue Jays (6-7, 0-5) have lost five straight, with their last victory coming March 15 when they outlasted Navy, 12-9. They joined the Michigan squads of 2015, 2016 and 2022 that finished their campaigns at 0-5 in the conference.

Friday’s outcome did not change Johns Hopkins’ standing in the league tournament as it was already slated to be the No. 6 seed. In the quarterfinals on Saturday, April 26, the team will face either Maryland or Penn State, which routed Rutgers, 12-4, earlier Friday.

Sophomore attackman Charlie Iler paced the Blue Jays with three points on two goals and one assist. Sophomore midfielder Chuck Rawson scored twice, and junior Matt Collison — who shifted from midfield to attack in pace of injured senior Russell Melendez, who sat out his sixth straight game — added one goal and one assist.

Junior goalkeeper Oran Gelinas outdueled Terps graduate student Logan McNaney by turning aside 20 shots. Gelinas, who made his sixth consecutive start in place of injured graduate student Luke Staudt, became the first Johns Hopkins goalie to reach the 20-save plateau since Tim Marcile finished with 21 in an 11-9 win at Syracuse on March 11, 2023.

“Just brought a lot of gratitude to today,” Gelinas said of his career-best performance. “It’s the biggest game in college lacrosse. So just extremely grateful to be a part of it and really enjoying the moment and being in that present moment throughout the game.”

Maryland coach John Tillman noted that the offense placed 31 of its 37 shots on net. He was pleased to see the team assist seven of its 11 goals.

“I feel like we didn’t shoot great, but you’ve got to give their goalie credit,” he said. “He’s a big dude and takes up a lot of the goal. Sometimes we maybe settled for some shots that if you don’t have a lot of angle against a big goalie, it’s just hard to score. I do think the guys, with a lot of those changing looks, did a good job with our spacing, try to get everybody involved, make the extra pass, share it.”

Chick earned his second assist of the first half when he drove from the right wing towards the net and drew two Maryland defenders before dumping the ball to Collison for a point-blank goal with 5:49 left that ended an 18:05 drought for Johns Hopkins. Collison then threaded a pass to freshman midfielder Liam Burke in the slot to trim the deficit to 6-5 with 1:51 remaining.

In the third quarter, the two sides traded two goals each to set up the dramatic final period that began with Iler knotting the score at 8-8 just 54 seconds in. But Kelly’s second goal of the game with 10:01 left restored the Terps’ lead, and Erska finished off a transition opportunity at the 7:44 mark and then fed Whittier for a tally at 3:18 that cemented the result.

Erksa said the offense didn’t stray from its game-long strategy even as the team might have felt some pressure in the fourth quarter.

“The whole week, we just focused on playing like ourselves and sticking to the game plan all game, and I think a couple plays definitely fell our way, and I think that was honestly the only difference,” he said. “We didn’t do anything really different. We kind of just stuck to the plan, and it worked out.”

While Maryland will get to enjoy a bye, there is no rest for the weary as the Blue Jays will play on Saturday. That was fine with Collison, who said he is eager to compete for another chance to spend more time with his teammates.

“I care a lot about these guys,” he said. “We’re — in my opinion — the tightest team in college lacrosse. So I’m looking forward to really putting it out there in order to earn another week with these guys.”

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