Maryland's Grant Catalino scored the game winning goal against Syracuse to earn an important playoff victory.

By Stacey Kilpatrick 

FOXBOROUGH, MA – Maryland appeared just as stunned as top ranked Syracuse did after Terrapin senior attackman Grant Catalino scored the game-winning goal with 0:32 remaining in overtime.

Maryland earned an impressive 6-5 win against Syracuse University on Sunday at Gillette Stadium, as well as punched their ticket to the Division I Men’s Lacrosse Final Four in Baltimore next weekend, where they’ll face Duke University.

“To finish our career with a win over [Syracuse] is unbelievable,” Catalino said. “I grew up watching Syracuse and the great players that played there and to think that I would be in a position like that to score the game-winning goal against a team like that, I’m kind of speechless.”

“[Syracuse’s] defense, it’s hard to run by their guys,” Maryland head coach John Tillman said. “There’s a reason they’re [15-2].”

Syracuse earned a 2-0 lead in the second quarter when senior midfielders Jeremy Thompson and Jovan Miller scored and gave the Orangemen their only lead of the day before Maryland battled back to tie the game before halftime, as junior midfielder Drew Snider and senior midfielder Scott Larue each recorded goals.

Maryland’s momentum continued into the third quarter when Jake Bernhardt and Catalino scored for the Terps, but the Orangemen rallied, as sophomore attackman/midfielder JoJo Marasco recorded a goal on a falling shot in front of the net. Although, Maryland did score once more before regulation concluded, as Larue found the back of the net to give the Terps a two-goal lead.

Jeremy Thompson and Jovan Miller tied the game for Syracuse during the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, which then set the scene for an exciting dramatic ending in overtime, as Catalino scored his second goal of the contest and secured another tournament win for Maryland.

“Congratulations to Maryland,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said. “I thought [we] had a pretty good game plan. [Curtis] Holmes just [dominated] in the face-offs. I really wasn’t terribly unhappy with how the offense ran. I was proud of the defense. The defense has been doing it all year and really kept Maryland really low-scoring for the amount of time that they were on their offense.