Division I Men :      February 28, 2004 [ The Game Story]
Georgetown 5 Maryland 14 Scoring: Scoring: Kevin Langtry Keith Schroeder Neal Goldman Wes Trice Derek Mills Andy Corno (1, 1) (1, 1) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) Xander Ritz Joe Walters Bill Mcglone Justin Smith Brendan Healy Michael Hartofilis Jr Bordley Harry Alford (3, 4) (3, 0) (2, 1) (2, 0) (1, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) Saves: Saves: Rich D'andrea 14  (0.500) Tim Mcginnis Harry Alford 13  (0.722) 3  (1.000) Current Record :     (0-1) Current Record :     (1-0) Team Page For 2004 Team Page For 2004       The Game Story: No. 5 Terps Blitz No. 6 Georgetown In Season-Opening Romp, 14-5 Ritz tallies seven points in his first game as a Terp. Feb. 28, 2004 WASHINGTON, D.C. - No. 5 Maryland reeled off nine consecutive goals in the final 17 minutes of the first half blow out No. 6 Georgetown, 14-5, on a sunny afternoon at Harbin Field. Sophomore Xander Ritz (Randor, Pa.) tallied seven points in his Terp debut on three goals and four assists. Fellow sophomore attacker Joe Walters (Rochester, N.Y.) netted his sixth career hat trick in the win with three goals. "This was a great performance for us," said head coach Dave Cottle. "The second quarter was as good as I've seen us play. Our defense and offense were very strong all afternoon and this is a solid way to begin the season." Through the first 11 minutes, the game stood scoreless as both goalies - Maryland's Tim McGinnis (Ellicott City, Md.) and Georgetown's Rich D'Andrea were sensational, with each making six saves. After Georgetown's Kevin Langtry opened the scoring with 4:17 left in the first quarter, the floodgates opened up as the Terps reeled off nine consecutive goals. Ritz, the transfer from Delaware, opened the scoring with his first of two goals in the 9-0 run with 2:13 left in the first quarter. Walters than took a pass from Ritz to make give the Terps the lead they would never relinquish with 1:26 left in the first period. The second quarter was all Maryland -- outscoring the Hoyas 7-0. Goals came from seven different players in the run: Justin Smith (University Park, Md.), Michael Hartofilis (Huntington, N.Y.), Bill McGlone (Swarthmore, Pa.), Ritz, Walters and brothers Ian Healy and Brendan Healy (Great Falls, Va.) closed the scoring tear to make it 9-1. The defense was just as strong as the offense as Terp seniors captains Chris Passavia (Stony Brook, N.Y.), Lee Zink (Rowayton, Conn.), Paul Gillette (Severna Park, Md.) and David Wagner (Severna Park, Md.) among with fellow defenders Gavin Webb (Upper Arlington, Ohio), Drew Virk (Ross, Calif.) and Tyler Hereth (Glastonbury, Conn.) allowed just one goal in the first half and limited preseason All-Americans Walid Hajj and Neal Goldman to just one assist in the game. In goal, McGinnis was sensational in his first game with Maryland as he made 13 saves in the first 52 minutes before giving way to freshman Harry Alford (Washington, D.C.), who made three saves. Maryland was a perfect 4-for-4 on man-up opportunities as Walters, Ian Healy, Smith and McGlone tallied extra-man goals. It was the first time since the season-opener last season vs. Duke, that Maryland scored four man-up goals. The win was the Terps' 11th in a row in a season opener and moves Maryland to 75-3-1 in season openers. Ritz' seven points were the most by a Terp since Mike Mollot had seven (five goals and two assists) vs. Towson on March 9, 2002. The win over a top-10 by nine goals was the largest margin of victory since the Terps' 19-8 win over Loyola in the NCAA Semifinals on May 23, 1998.

Georgetown Head Coach Dave Urick described it as “baptism by fire” for his freshman and less experienced sophomores, and that was hardly an overstatement. With the exception of the first ten minutes of the game, Maryland (1-0) dominated Georgetown (0-1) on both ends of the field and looked in mid-season form as they cruised to their 11th straight season opener. The record setting performances of Terrapins Xander Ritz on attack and transfer Tim McGinnis between the pipes were the catalysts in this one-sided match up.

The first goal of the game, more than ten minutes into action, came from Hoya attackman Kevin Langtry, when he took a feed from sophomore Keith Schroeder, the younger brother of Hoya legend Scott Schroeder, and beat McGinnis to take the early lead. That would be the only lead Georgetown would see all day. Maryland was able to score twice before the end of the quarter; the first unassisted by Ritz, and the second off a feed from Ritz to classmate Joe Walters. Thankfully for the Hoyas, the play of Rich D’Andrea in goal kept the Hoya’s close in the first quarter, and prevented the Terrapins from running away with the game early.

The second quarter would be host to a 7-0 run by Maryland in which they out-shot Georgetown 12-4. The first two goals of the quarter were mirror images of each other as Maryland attackmen Chris Feifs and Michael Hartofilis worked their respective defenders from X and scored just above GLE. In response to Maryland’s unassisted goals, Urick expressed his disappointment while adding that he couldn’t “expect Rich to make those saves.” With 9:32 left in the half, only ten seconds after the Hartofilis score, Maryland was able to score on a fluke goal that rolled pass D’Andrea. It was followed by another Ritz score, again just above GLE, and then a Georgetown timeout. But unfortunately the timeout didn’t help the Hoyas much, as Maryland added two more goals in the last two minutes, with the last one coming with only 5 seconds on the scoreboard. The half ended with a 9-1 Terrapin lead.

While the Hoyas would go on to outscore Maryland 3-2 in the third quarter, it would prove futile as the game continued. The Georgetown coaches were encouraging their players to take it “one goal at a time,” and while that initially seemed to work, as Georgetown again scored the first goal of the half, Maryland would again answer with two of their own, the first of which accounted for Walters’ third goal and Ritz’s third assist of the game. Off the heels of the second Maryland score, Andy Corno was able to give the Hoyas some much needed life, and it was continued by Georgetown’s Derek Mills’ score to end the quarter with Maryland holding a commanding 11-4 lead.

There wasn’t much animation in the final quarter of play and the performance was overall lack luster. The relative youth of the Georgetown offense was evidenced by the desperate and off target shots that often were inopportune. Similarly the Georgetown defense looked unprepared for a match-up of this caliber, despite the hype entering the game. Thankfully for the fans, the Maryland offense did provide some energy by adding three more goals in the final 15 minutes, two being of the unassisted type. The only Georgetown goal of the half came from Schroeder, with nearly 12 minutes left.

Georgetown was forced to take good shots if they wanted any chance of scoring, and even with very good shots, McGinnis was able to stop a majority of them. His defensive efforts, combined with the offensive steadiness that the Terps young and relatively inexperienced offense provided, gave Maryland all it needed to handle the Hoyas today. From the start, the Hoyas looked rusty and timid on offense, while coming late or simply missing slides on defense. Noticeably absent from the box score is Walid Hajj’s name and similarly surprising is the relatively ineffective 1 point (assist) Neal Goldman had for the Hoyas. Coach Urick was right in saying that they need to take “a long, hard look at the tape” and learn from it. His understanding of the season as “a marathon, [and] not a sprint” should comfort Hoya fans, but only to a certain extent. Today belonged to the Maryland Terrapins, and in front of the 2,743 fans that came to Harbin Field to watch the first ever regular season meeting with Georgetown here in Washington, DC, they clearly came out on top.

Here are the numbers (Maryland/Georgetown): Shots 42/38; Groundballs 34/39; Face-offs 7-23/16-23; Clears 23-27/18-22; Extra-man 4-4/1-4; Saves 16/14; Turnovers 17/25.