Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

The good news for the Terrapin men's lacrosse team is since its win at North Carolina March 22, it has been nearly flawless on extra-man opportunities.

The bad news is seven opportunities in five games have not been enough to spark their struggling offense.

In five games since scoring a pair of man-up fourth-quarter goals to clinch a victory against the Tar Heels, the Terps have converted 6-of-7 opportunities.

The Terps, who traditionally have one of the strongest extra-man units in the country, have again capitalized when given a man advantage this season. The only problem is they have not forced as many opportunities as many of the other top teams in the nation.

"I don't think we've put ourselves in tough spots, and in turn we haven't been drawing as many fouls as we need to," coach Dave Cottle said.

Failing to generate any extra-man opportunities did not hurt the team in its March 29 win against then-No. 1 Virginia, but drawing so few penalties in the past four games has not done the Terps any favors.

The Terps have lost three of their last four games while the offense has posted an average of just 6.25 goals per game.

"We have a pretty good man-up team," junior midfielder Dan Groot said. "We just haven't been getting our man-up opportunities. But when we do, we pretty much capitalize on them for the most part."

That efficiency has been a hallmark of Terp lacrosse. The past three seasons, the Terps have not finished worse than 11th in the nation in man-up goal percentage. Last season, they cashed in on more than 49 percent of their opportunities to rank fourth in the nation. The Terps have converted 17-of-38 chances this season, or 44.7 percent, good for sixth nationally.

But this season, the Terps' sample size has been relatively small. They've averaged about three chances per game this season, down from 3.4 last season. They have earned at least 19 fewer chances than each of the other three teams in the ACC.

The reason for the drop is hard to pinpoint.

Cottle said the Terps' youth may be a factor, and they simply have not learned how to draw fouls. He also said the referees have called less fouls overall this season.

Freshman attackman Grant Catalino, who leads the Terps with five man-up goals this season, offered his own explanation.

"Not to blame it on the refs, but it seems like they're generally tougher on Maryland," Catalino said. "I think we play a very tough mentality of defense, and therefore we commit more fouls than everybody else. It seems like a lot of the 50-50 calls have gone against us instead of for us."

Cottle said his team's reputation for being so effective with a man advantage may be contributing as well.

"We've been pretty good over the last five years on extra man, so I think teams definitely don't want to foul us," he said.

Cottle's goal for the Terps every season is to score 10 more extra-man goals than they give up. So far this season, they've scored 17 and surrendered nine.

Catalino realizes increasing that difference the rest of the season could be a key way to ensure success.

"I think if we can get two to three more extra-man opportunities a game that will help our offense so much," Catalino said. "If we can put two to three more goals on the board, it will help us in the future."

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