COLLEGE PARK — In a men's lacrosse matchup that pitted one of Division I's top offenses against its stingiest defense, Maryland's defense had the final — and most emphatic — word.
The No. 9 Terps held No. 10 Princeton to more than 10 goals below its season average and used a 6-0 run in the third and fourth quarters to cruise to an 11-4 victory on Saturday before an announced 2,149 at Byrd Stadium.
Maryland improved to 4-1 and has won three consecutive games since a 10-6 loss at then-No. 14 Yale on Feb. 21. Junior midfielder Henry West and sophomore attackman Matt Rambo led all scorers with three points each. Rambo scored three times for his second hat trick of the season, and West recorded two goals and one assist.
But it was the defense that made the biggest statement. The Tigers (3-1) had entered the game averaging 14.7 goals — tied for the seventh-best in the nation — and had scored 16 times in an overtime win against then-No. 12 Johns Hopkins on Feb. 28.
But against a Maryland defense that had allowed just 5.3 goals per game, Princeton scored fewer than 14 goals for the first time this season. The offense's four goals were the team's fewest since March 19, 2011 when the Tigers lost to Ivy League-rival Penn, 8-3.
Anchored by redshirt junior goalkeeper Kyle Bernlohr's game-high 11 saves, the Terps held a ranked opponent to its lowest output since May 28, 2011 when that squad defeated No. 6 Duke, 9-4. But coach John Tillman wasn't ready to anoint the defense's effort as the best performance in recent memory.
"When we needed to dig in, the guys really dug in," he said. "There was one time when we failed to clear and we had four short-sticks out there, and we got it done. We saw that as a really good victory for us just emotionally [as in,] 'Hey, we didn't have all of our poles in, and we still found a way to get a good stop.'
"I thought Kyle just continued — as the game went on — to just get more confident. We'll see how it goes going forward, but I think this is a good confidence builder for those guys, just knowing how talented Princeton is."
Maryland senior defenseman Casey Ikeda shut out senior attackman Mike MacDonald, who had scored at least one point in 30 straight games. Sophomore defenseman Mac Pons (Boys' Latin) and freshman long-stick midfielder Matt Neufeldt also blanked Tigers senior midfielder Kip Orban, whose 29-game streak with at least one goal — the longest active streak in Division I — came to an end.
Ikeda said it "just a great performance by Kyle" and credited the Terps' scout team for helping the defense prepare for Princeton.
"We were kind of ready for some of the things they were going to show and some of the craftiness in some of them," he said. "When we thought [members of the scout team] were covered in practice, they showed us how they weren't covered."
While the defense was holding down the Tigers offense, Maryland's offense exploded after going into halftime with a slim 3-2 lead. After both sides traded goals to open the third quarter, the Terps ran off six consecutive scores, including five in a span of 3 minutes, 46 seconds.
During the spurt, the offense converted an extra-man opportunity when senior attackman Jay Carlson (St. Paul's) batted a rebound out of mid-air into the net. Carlson then followed a faceoff win by senior Charlie Raffa with a transition goal, and senior midfielder Joe LoCascio collected a skip pass from West for a blast from the left point. Those three goals took just 83 seconds.
Raffa won seven of nine faceoffs in the third quarter, and West said Raffa's overall showing (13-for-20) helped power the offense.
"I think it takes a lot of pressure off the whole team when he's winning draws like that just because, offensively, we're getting a lot of possessions and resting the defense," West said. "It's pretty much make-it, take-it when he's in the zone like that."
Princeton coach Chris Bates said the team will have much to review during Monday's meetings.
"They play really good team defense, and we knew that coming in," he said. "And then as I'm watching the game, they were more impressive live than they were on film. It's a good help defense."