NEWARK, Del. — It wasn’t the top seed in the NCAA tournament. It didn’t spend a week at No. 1 in any national rankings despite the tumult of the season at the national level.
Albany was, however, the thrill-a-minute offensive juggernaut seemingly on the verge of a program first after a blistering start took down defending national champion North Carolina in its postseason opener.
Then it ran into Maryland in Sunday’s quarterfinals, and the fun came to an abrupt halt.
Connor Kelly scored five goals, Matt Rambo added four goals and four assists and Jon Garino Jr. came off the bench to neutralize Great Danes’ faceoff ace TD Ierlan to lead the top-seeded Terrapins to an 18-9 triumph before 9,711 at Delaware Stadium and back to Memorial Day weekend for the fourth consecutive year.
“Today just wasn’t our day,” Albany coach Scott Marr said. “We were missing something and a lot of that had to do with Maryland.”
Albany-Maryland was perhaps the most anticipated of this weekend’s four quarterfinals. There was the matchup of Tewaaraton finalists (Rambo and Albany attackman Connor Fields). There was the fact the teams met a little more than a month earlier, when the Terps (14-3) snagged a 12-11 victory on April 12.
There was also the possibility Albany could join Ohio State as a first-time semifinalist and bring its full-throttle approach to the final days of the season.
Instead, like the three games before it this weekend, one team was in control by the middle of the second quarter. And Maryland didn’t need nearly that long to bury the Great Danes (15-3).
The Terps rattled off eight consecutive goals to seize a 10-2 lead less than 20 minutes in. They led 12-4 at halftime, their largest output in the first 30 minutes of an NCAA tournament game since the 1976 semifinals. The 18 goals on the day was their most in the postseason since bombing Loyola 19-8 in the 1998 semifinals.
Maryland improved to 6-0 in quarterfinals under coach John Tillman.
“I never take that granted, how hard that is, how special that is,” Tillman said. “For these guys to go four straight years, it speaks to the talent we have and how hard they work.”
And on this day, the Terps’ ability to shut down an Albany bunch coming off a riveting victory against North Carolina.
Goalie JD Colarusso made 13 saves against the Tar Heels. He was chased in the first half against Maryland.
Fields shredded the Tar Heels for three goals and four assists. Maryland cut down his feeding opportunities and kept him to six shots during a three-goal, one-assist performance.
And after Ierlan throttled North Carolina last week and Maryland for the first quarter, the Terps turned to Garino, who won 12 of his 14 tries against the freshman. Tillman acknowledged winning anything close to 50 percent was an aim; Maryland took 16 of 30 at the X.
“In a sense, everything that went really well for us last week against North Carolina went the opposite today,” Marr said.
Ierlan’s struggles over the final three quarters exacerbated a problem that surfaced even earlier. Albany had to play much more defense than usual, and the effect was a ragged bunch that couldn’t contend with Rambo (who tied Joe Walters atop Maryland’s career goals list with 153), Kelly and the rest of the Terps’ potent offense.
“It made us tired running around the field a lot,” defenseman Stone Sims said. “Long possessions took a toll on us and they capitalized on little mistakes that we made.”
The differences between Maryland’s one-goal win over the Great Danes in April and its blowout on a neutral site on Sunday ran far deeper than where the games was played. The preparation for the two contests were starkly different.
The trip to Albany was in the middle of a nine-day gauntlet sandwiched between a home date against then-unbeaten Penn State and a trip to Rutgers. It was rescheduled after a March 11 postponement to a far-from-ideal spot on the calendar.
This time, Maryland had a week to prepare for an offense led by Fields, who completed his junior year with 55 goals and 62 assists to finish fourth on the all-time single-season points list.
Just as importantly, it knew exactly what to expect from the Great Danes’ explosive attack.
“Last time having a two-day turnaround just doesn’t let you put some things in,” said defenseman Tim Muller, who was matched up on Fields in both games. “Having a week allows you to put more stuff in and look more into their plays and decide what we need to do.”
This isn’t likely to be the last Albany is heard from. Only two senior starters depart from a team that has made five consecutive NCAA tournament trips and three appearances in the quarterfinals in that span.
But the breakthrough will have to wait at least another year. The bludgeoning Maryland delivered ensured that in a hurry.
“They were very good,” Marr said. “I just think they were better than us today. It would’ve been nice if we could have gotten a couple bounces, for sure, but I’m not sure we could have overcome some of the bounces because they were on.”