The fastest sport on two feet was reduced to a crawl, and that suited Maryland men’s lacrosse just fine.

The No. 2 seed Terps employed a suffocating defense and a just-enough offense to hold off unseeded Georgetown, 9-6, Sunday afternoon in an NCAA Tournament quarterfinal before an announced 17,721 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.

After two games at Hofstra combined for 62 goals and the first game on Sunday between No. 5 seed Penn State and reigning two-time national champion Notre Dame produced a total of 26 goals, Maryland was happy enough to grind out a victory that was not certain until late in the fourth quarter.

Graduate student Jack McDonald likened competing against the Hoyas to playing a game against Big Ten rivals.

“Playing Rutgers, playing Michigan, playing Penn State and all of the Big Ten teams, it gave us a great trial run for today,” he said. “I think we were ready. I think we knew what was going to come with Georgetown. It was going to be a slower game. It was kind of going to be a rock fight. “That’s kind of what we called it all week, and we were prepared. We knew we were going to play a lot of defense, but we love it. We just want to compete.”

The Terps (13-3) secured their 11th win in 12 attempts in the quarterfinal round during coach John Tillman’s 15-year tenure and will return to the Final Four for the second year in a row and 30th time overall, breaking a tie with Johns Hopkins for the most by an NCAA Division I school. They will face No. 6 seed Syracuse (13-5), which outlasted No. 3 seed Princeton, 19-18, on Saturday.

Maryland triumphed in front of an NCAA-record crowd for the quarterfinal round. Sunday’s attendance surpassed the previous mark of 17,017 that descended upon Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium to watch No. 2 seed Virginia edge No. 7 seed Maryland, 8-7, and No. 5 seed Johns Hopkins dispose of unseeded Navy, 10-4, on May 17, 2008.

“Crowd was phenomenal,” Tillman said. “Navy is such a good host for this game. I think they said 17,000, almost 18,000, and they were awesome. We felt them all game long. Our fans were awesome.”

The Terps improved to 12-1 this season when containing an opponent to less than 10 goals by relying on a defense that kept Georgetown from scoring for a 15:17 stretch bridging the second and third quarters and the final 8:42 of the game. The unit was anchored by graduate student goalkeeper Logan McNaney’s 11 saves — including five in the final stanza and eight in the second half — and the starting trio of junior Will Schaller, senior Colin Burlace (St. Mary’s), and graduate student Jackson Canfield, which limited the Hoyas’ starting attack to a combined three goals on 17 shots and one assist while committing eight turnovers.

“Logan’s incredible,” McDonald said. “Just as a defense, we know that. If you give him certain shots, he’s going to eat it up all day. He’s just a calming presence, a guy who’s been in this spot many times. You can kind of just always rely on him. When you get to the fourth quarter in a tight game, I don’t think he blinks twice.”

Graduate student attackman Aidan Carroll, who amassed six goals and two assists in Georgetown’s 16-12 upset of No. 7 seed Duke on May 10, compiled two goals and one assist against Maryland. But after scoring twice in a 69-second span in the second quarter, Carroll was shut out over the final 37:13 as he was blanketed by Schaller, the Terps’ top defenseman who grew up in Bel Air.

“Just a gritty performance,” Tillman said. “I thought defensively, (associate head coach and defensive coordinator) Jesse (Bernhardt) always does a great job with the game plan, and these guys do a great job executing it. And then offensively, just kind of grinded. Not our best, but when we needed to make some plays, we did.”

Junior attackman Braden Erksa led the offense in goals (three) and points (four), and graduate student midfielder Bryce Ford compiled one goal and two assists as freshman faceoff specialist Jonah Carrier (nine of 12 with two ground balls) gave the unit plenty of chances. But Maryland never led by more than two goals until graduate student attackman Daniel Kelly converted a pass by Ford with 2:21 remaining that proved to be the final margin.

“It was just about staying patient,” said Kelly, a Towson native and Calvert Hall graduate who scored the team’s first and last goals of the game. “The ball will always find you, and it found us late in the game. I’m proud of Braden. I thought he played great today, and we needed it.”

As much success as the Terps have enjoyed in the quarterfinals under Tillman, the opposite has played out for the Hoyas (12-5). They suffered their 11th consecutive setback at this stage of the postseason, dropping to 1-12 overall in the quarterfinals, and remain in search of their first win this late in the NCAA Tournament since May 22, 1999, when that squad defeated Duke, 17-14.

Junior midfielder Lucas Dudemaine came off the bench to spark Georgetown with two goals and two assists, and sophomore goalie Anderson Moore made a game-high 12 saves. Sophomore defenseman Ty Banks held Maryland senior attackman Eric Spanos to one goal and one assist after the latter erupted for six goals in Sunday’s 13-5 rout of Air Force in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

But the Hoyas turned the ball over 17 times – their second-highest total of the season – and took only 30 shots, which was 10 fewer than the Terps attempted.

“They make it very difficult for you to decide if they’re actually sliding fulltime, going half the time, just stepping off their man,” coach Kevin Warne said. “They play games with you a little bit, and what happens is, it slows you down. And the guy they got in the goal is not bad in the nicest way possible. He’s excellent, he gobbles it up.”

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