Colin Heacock and Matt Rambo salvaged what would have been an epic collapse for the Maryland men's lacrosse team in the NCAA Division I tournament.
Despite building a four-goal advantage in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, the top-seeded Terps watched No. 5 seed Brown score four times in the final seven minutes to send the game into overtime. But Maryland won the opening faceoff, and Heacock converted a pass from Rambo with 2 minutes, 41 seconds left in the extra session to cap a 15-14 win in the second semifinal here at Lincoln Financial Field.
Before an announced 33,137 — the most in the semifinals since 2011 — the Terps (17-2) extended their winning streak to 16 and advanced to their fourth championship final in the last six years. Maryland, which has gone 0-8 in title-game appearances since capturing the national title in 1975, will meet unseeded North Carolina on Monday at 1 p.m.
The Tar Heels (11-6) routed No. 7 seed Loyola Maryland, 18-13, in the first semifinal. North Carolina will make its sixth trip to the NCAA tournament final and is seeking its first national crown since 1991.
The Terps almost lost to a Bears squad (16-3) inspired by the return of junior attackman and Tewaaraton Award finalist Dylan Molloy from a broken right foot, but Heacock and Rambo rescued Maryland. After senior defenseman Matt Dunn corralled a ground ball off the faceoff to open overtime, the offense worked the ball around until Rambo zipped a pass from the left point to Heacock standing alone in front of Brown senior goalkeeper Jack Kelly.
After watching Kelly, a first-team All-American, use his stick to stone several of Heacock's teammates on high shots earlier in the second half, the Catonsville resident and Boys' Latin graduate faked high and slipped a low shot around Kelly and into the bottom right corner of the net to end the contest.
Heacock credited senior midfielder Bryan Cole and sophomore midfielder Connor Kelly for forcing the Bears defense to move and slide.
"Bryan Cole and Connor Kelly, they were kind of working behind together and kind of making some movement," said Heacock, who finished with three goals and one assist. "They just kind of skipped it through to Rambo, and being the great player that he is, he's got great vision. I was just kind of sitting there."
Said Rambo, who contributed one goal and a career-high five assists: "I just called for the skip pass and looked directly in the middle, and Colin was just wide open. He finished it for us."
The narrow finish was somewhat unexpected after Maryland went on a 5-0 run spanning the second and third quarters to gain a 12-8 advantage. That development included a defensive effort that kept the Bears off the scoreboard for 21:34.
Then the Terps earned a 14-10 lead after senior midfielder Henry West fired a shot from the left wing off a feed from Rambo with 9:33 left in regulation.
But the Bears would not go away quietly. The team got goals from senior attackmen Bailey Tills, Kylor Bellistri and Henry Blynn in a 1:18 span to cut the deficit to one with 4:55 remaining.
Then, after a turnover by the Terps in their offensive end, Tills floated a pass to senior midfielder Brendan Caputo for a blast from 12 yards that knotted the score at 14-14 with 1:49 left in the fourth quarter.
But Dunn, one of Maryland's four co-captains, said the team tried to forget about the end of regulation.
"In overtime, we kind of tried to erase all prior things that happened," said the Towson resident and Loyola Blakefield graduate, who registered three ground balls, two caused turnovers and one goal on a 65-yard shot in the second quarter. "We just said we're going to get this ground ball, we're going to win this faceoff, we're going to make the best play we can make. We just tried not to focus too much on what had happened."
Tills led Brown with five points on four goals and one assist, Blynn added two goals and two assists, and Kelly made a game-high 14 saves. Molloy, who sat out the team's 11-10 win against Navy in the quarterfinals on May 21 after initially breaking the fifth metatarsal on his right foot in the fourth quarter of a 17-8 shellacking of Johns Hopkins in the first round on May 14, scored twice in limited bursts of playing time.
But Bears coach Lars Tiffany credited Maryland with not falling into a trap that had befallen many previous opponents.
"Maryland did a phenomenal job not letting us get underneath their skin," he said. "We're really good at making teams uncomfortable, and while we may have made Maryland uncomfortable here and there, they kept their poise and then they built that lead."
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