COLLEGE PARK — Maryland men’s lacrosse made sure it did not share the same fate some of its seeded brethren in the NCAA Tournament encountered.

The No. 2 seed Terps scored the first two goals and four of the first five to take any suspense out of a first-round game with Air Force en route to a 13-5 pummeling Sunday afternoon before an announced 2,253 at SECU Stadium.Maryland (12-3) earned a berth in the quarterfinals for the 10th time in the past 11 years. It will meet Georgetown (12-4) on Sunday in a quarterfinal at a time to be announced at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.

On the heels of Richmond opening the first round on Saturday by stunning No. 8 seed North Carolina, 13-10, Colgate pushing No. 5 seed Penn State to the end in a 13-11 decision, Georgetown toppling No. 7 seed Duke, 16-12, and reigning two-time national champion Notre Dame blasting No. 4 seed Ohio State, 15-6, on Sunday afternoon, Terps coach John Tillman might have had reason to be concerned about the Atlantic Sun Tournament champion Falcons.

“We talked about that,” he acknowledged. “We talked this morning how yesterday went. You had three super competitive games. Colgate, that game went down to the wire. The hungry dog eats best. You’ve got to make sure that you are ready to go. We just warned against, ‘Just showing up isn’t enough. You’ve got to execute, you’ve got to be detail-oriented, you’ve got to play hard, and you don’t get anything. You’ve got to earn it.’ Our guys have been pretty responsive all year with that. They’re an awesome group, they’re super invested. I’ve enjoyed them all year in so many ways, and they’ve made my job a whole lot easier.”

The message must have gotten through to Tillman’s players. Maryland scored two goals in the first 2:02 as Air Force (9-8) opened with a zone defense. After junior attackman Ryan Stadelmaier got the Falcons on the scoreboard off an assist by freshman midfielder Alex Rismani late in the first quarter, the Terps scored five of the next six goals to take a 7-2 lead into halftime.

Maryland then began the third quarter with five straight goals to put the game out of Air Force’s reach.

In what was the final home game of his career, senior attackman Eric Spanos scored six goals on 11 shots, tying Jared Bernhardt for the second-most goals by a Terps player in an NCAA Tournament game. Bernhardt scored six in a 17-11 victory over Vermont in a first-round matchup in 2021.

“Last game of the season in our stadium, it’s definitely meaningful to go out there and be able to produce and just help the team win in any way I can,” Spanos said.

Junior attackman Braden Erksa and senior midfielder Zach Whittier each compiled one goal and two assists. But Maryland got four from four other players and assists from four more and was able to pull its starters early and empty the bench in the fourth quarter.

Spanos credited the offense’s 8-0 run in a 20:11 span stretching over the second and third quarters to the players’ preference to share the ball.

“I think we just found a flow there, and we were just riding it,” he said.

“The best thing about us is, I think we’re a very unselfish group, and no one really cares who scores the goal as long as there’s a goal scored. I think that’s something that has really pushed us all season and is going to continue to push us, and I think that’s what we found right there.”

Graduate student goalkeeper Logan McNaney made a game-high 10 saves before getting replaced by junior Brian Ruppel for the final 9:43, and graduate student long-stick midfielder Jack McDonald and graduate student short-stick defensive midfielder Zack Goorno each caused two turnovers.

The starting defense of junior Will Schaller, senior Colin Burlace and graduate student Jackson Canfield limited Air Force’s starting attack of junior Caelan Driggs, senior Josh Yago and Stadelmaier to a combined four goals on 14 shots and one assist. Tillman said he was pleased to see the defense contain a Falcons offense that had averaged 13.4 goals in its past seven contests.

“They got some shots, but some of those were contested, and they were runners and ones that were maybe a little outside,” he said. “We’ve got to give up some things, and I thought a lot of those shots were kind of longer range.”

Sunday’s quarterfinal against Georgetown will involve some personal ties.

Tillman noted that Hoyas coach Kevin Warne was the defensive coordinator on Tillman’s staff in 2011 and 2012, Maryland offensive coordinator Michael Phipps held the same position on Warne’s staff from 2018 to 2022, and Phipps’ sister-in-law Caitlyn Phipps is the women’s lacrosse coach at Georgetown.

Junior long-stick midfielder AJ Larkin said the team’s primary objective is extending its season week to week.

“With this win, it just encapsulates how happy we are to be together for another week,” the Baltimore resident and Loyola Blakefield graduate said. “It’s kind of win or go home at this point, as we all know, and just being able to be with the guys and be in the locker room for another week to try to strive for something we’ve been going for all year is something that we’re really excited to do.”

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