April 6, 2015
By Maria Canales, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Nittany Lions fell to the dropped a tough 12-5 decision at Maryland on Saturday.
Taking on their second Big Ten foe, the Nittany Lions traveled to College Park over the weekend in arguably their biggest matchup of the season so far. No. 3 Maryland opened the game with several unanswered goals, giving the Lions a lot of ground to make up for.
Head coach Jeff Tambroni explained that after the first quarter, Penn State's defense had to adjust to withstand Maryland's explosive offense. The Nittany Lions also had to change strategies for getting possession of the ball. Possession time has been one of the team's biggest struggles this season.
"We just couldn't seem to get into any rhythm today and that really hurt us," said Tambroni. "Trying to stop [Maryland] before we got the ball in the offensive end is not a very good strategy."
In response to Maryland's strong start, Penn State's defense had to really batten down the hatches to keep the game close. The defense, led by senior JP Burnside, kept Maryland to just four goals in the final 45 minutes of the game. However, it was the offense's struggle to make opportunities for themselves that led to very few scoring chances.
"I don't think we played great team offense," said Tambroni. "I thought we had extremely limited possessions in the first half and maximized all we could, but in that third and fourth quarter we just couldn't adjust."
The outcome may have not been ideal, but this game proved to be yet another learning opportunity for Penn State. Now knowing what it takes to keep a top five offense at bay, the Lions will go into this week of practices with new motivation and momentum.
"I think we've got to take away the fact that we got down by a bunch and were able to come back and at least fight and make the last few quarters a competitive contest," said Tambroni. "We gotta take that as we move forward."
The Lions will take the tough road loss and use it as motivation to prepare for another trip to Maryland to play Johns Hopkins on Saturday.