Head Coach Gary Gait: “No Weight” Lifted After Beating No. 1 Maryland
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The No. 2 Syracuse Men’s Lacrosse team (3-0) defeated No. 1 Maryland Terrapins (1-1), 11-9, for the first time in 17 years.
When the 2026 college lacrosse schedule dropped, everyone in the lacrosse world had the date February 13th marked on their calendars, and it did not disappoint, as 10,159 Orange faithful fans packed the Dome during Friday night’s game.
“There’s no other place in the world you can go to a game in February and have ten thousand people, screaming, yelling and cheering,” said Syracuse head coach Gary Gait.
2009 marked the last time Syracuse took down Maryland, snapping an eight-game losing streak against the Terps. Last night, the Orange got the win after the Terps ended the Orange’s season in last year’s Final Four, sending home Cuse in a 14-8 loss.
The win meant a lot to the 315, but in coach Gait’s eyes, they still haven’t gotten the monkey off their backs after defeating the No. 1 team in the nation.
“No weight,” Gait said, “It’s February, it’s the third game of the year, but it was a nice step.”
In last year’s game, senior attackman Joey Spallina recorded only one assist, as the Terps hounded him all day long. Tonight it was different for the Syracuse captain, as he put up a four-goal performance for the second time this season.
With Maryland’s top defender, Will Schaller, being tasked with shadowing Spallina all night, coach Gait had to find different ways to get his star player the ball.
“If that means playing off the ball to start possessions, where they have to slide, and now I’m on a different player, then that’s what I’ll do at the end of the day,” said Spallina. “I’m doing whatever I have to do to win the game.”
Spallina has tallied 11 goals and 7 assists for 18 points so far this season, moving his total to 264 points over his career, putting him 44 points away from Mike Powell’s program record of 307 all-time points.
“I’ve been seeing it for a long time,” said Maryland head coach John Tillman, “Joey’s a great player; he’s a great kid.”
The Terps got out to an early lead in the first after a failed offensive possession by the Orange. Leo Johnson came the other way and ripped a shot right past Jimmy McCool to get things going in this one-versus-two showdown.
The largest lead of the game for the Terps was when they were up 2-1 over the Orange early in the quarter before Cuse sparked a run of five unanswered goals (Spallina 2x, Wyatt Hottle, Tyler McCarthy, Paytan Anderson) putting the Orange up 6-2 in the early stages of the second quarter.
Maryland’s Elijah Stobaugh had himself a night, recording a hat trick, but getting two of his three goals just about 90 seconds apart to get the Terps back to within two, and they were finding rhythm offensively. Still, it was Cuse’s Michael Leo who had a two-goal third quarter, helping the Orange outpace the Terps.
That marks Leo’s 20th career multi-goal game and puts the All-American midfielder up to six goals on the year through three games.
“We were always chasing to be number one for three years,” said Leo, “So now we’re actually being chased, and we’ve got a lot more to do.”
Entering the fourth and final quarter, Stobaugh notched his third goal for the Terps, which brought them back within one, as Cuse was leading 10-9 until the freshman Bogue Hahn fired a rocket of a shot past Brian Ruppel to give the Orange a late insurance goal up 11-9.
Even though this was the largest offensive victory over a No. 1 opponent for the Orange since 2009, they also dominated the groundball battle 36-22 with Joey Spallina recording five ground balls and McCool moves 3-0 on the season after a stellar nine-save performance, after earning ACC Defensive Player of the Week honors last week.
The Orange and Terps went dead even at the face-off circle, winning 12 a piece, with draws being a talking point heading into the game. Each team’s players, John Mullen for Syracuse and Henry Dodge for Maryland, both won 11 draws each.
After starting 3-0 at the Dome, the Orange will begin their six-game road trip in Cambridge, Massachusetts, against Harvard this Saturday before returning home on March 22nd against Georgetown.
“I think that would be the real test for us to get out on the road and not be in front of 10,000 people on a cold winter day,” said head coach Gait.