2022’s Last BearLaxTraxFax by John Nichols parent’10

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Congratulations to the Maryland Terrapins, the 2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Champions! John Geppert and Matt Kopp joined the long list of Landon graduates who are NCAA champions. There were lots of Landon alums rooting for each team on Monday—Brendan and Ian Healy, Kellen Miller, JR Bordley, Danny McCormick, Mike Griswold, Rob Morrison, Justin Shockey, and Griffin Brown for Maryland and from Cornell Joe Paoletta, Colton Rupp, Jack Bolen, Andrew Fowler, Marshall Peters, Will Joyce, Max Feely, Kevin Raesly, Billy Fort, Tanner Campbell, Michael Voris, Clayton Weber, and Reed Fawell. And of course, we honor the late George Bioardi.  Please accept my apologies if you played for either team are not included.

DI

SEMIFINALS

#1 MARYLAND (John Geppert, Matt Kopp) 13

#5PRINCETON 8

Maryland used a pair of four-goal runs—one in each half—and never allowed the Tigers better than two in a row.  Princeton fought the Terrapins to a near draw on faceoffs and ground balls—two areas where Maryland has been dominant this year. They also outshot Maryland by a narrow margin, so goalie play was critical and Maryland’s starting goalie made nineteen saves in the game.

John put one shot on goal and scooped up four ground balls.

#6 RUTGERS 10

#7CORNELL 17

Cornell’s defense did not allow back-to-back goals until the final two minutes of the game and their offense ran off six straight scores in the third period.

CHAMPIONSHIP

#1 MARYLAND (John Geppert, Matt Kopp) 9

#7 CORNELL 7

This year’s championship game was a rematch of the first NCAA men’s lacrosse championship in 1971.  Cornell won that year, 12-6.  Two years later, Maryland became the first team to go undefeated and win the NCAA tournament. Perfect seasons were more common in the early days of the NCAA tournament as half of the NCAA men’s lacrosse champions had perfect records over the first twenty years of the tournament. In 2006, Virginia was the last team to go through the season with a spotless record and win the title.  That team included Landon alums Matt Ward and Chris Ourisman.

Both teams in this game were trying to make up for something lost last year.  For Cornell it was the cancellation of their 2021 season due to Covid and for Maryland it was suffering a loss in the championship game last year after having gone undefeated until that game. This year’s Maryland team had mowed through the competition by an average score of 19-8.  In the tournament, Maryland knocked off last year’s champs, Virginia and then took down fifth seeded Princeton to set up Monday’s title tilt.

The first quarter started as a scoreless back-and-forth affair until Cornell scored the game’s first goal.  Maryland then closed out the quarter with four consecutive scores and appeared to be on their way to yet another blowout win.  The teams traded goals to start the second period, then another long productive run for the Terrapins.  That run included the first two goals of the first half and the first two goals of the second half to go up 9-2 early in the third quarter. Based on Maryland’s play throughout this season it felt like we were on the verge of another epic blowout. 

However, that ninth goal was the Terrapin’s last goal of the day. Seven minutes later, Cornell got their third goal of the day, the first of their attempted comeback. Big Red slowly took bites out of Maryland’s lead, getting their fourth goal of the day early in the final period.  After another hectic dry spell, Cornell’s threat took on more life as they scored twice in minute to pull within three with seven and a half minutes left in the game. Cornell’s pressure resulted in multiple scoring opportunities and Maryland turnovers as the game clock wore down but Maryland’s goalie, the game’s most valuable player, made saves repeatedly to preserve Maryland’s lead.  Cornell scored with just thirty-six seconds left in the game to pull within two, but Maryland won possession off the ensuing faceoff and successfully ran out the clock.

John took one shot in the game, caused two turnovers, and scooped up three ground balls.

CANNOT WAIT FOR THE 2022-2023 SEASON