TOWSON, Md. — Five shots. Five makes. And just 4:20 had come off the clock.

Kelly McPartland cut in with the ball from behind the 12-meter arc and bounced an uncontested shot with her weak hand past Alyssa Costantino to give Maryland a quick five-goal lead.

Syracuse had not even touched the ball and the Terrapins’ offense was like clockwork. Each time Maryland won a draw, it had no problem finding a hole in the Syracuse defense.

“It’s a little startling,” SU defender Kasey Mock said.

After forcing 17 turnovers in a strong performance in Friday’s semifinal win over Virginia, No. 2-seed Syracuse’s (22-3, 6-1 Atlantic Coast) defense faltered against Maryland. It committed 43 fouls, was handed six yellow cards and forced just six turnovers in a 15-12 loss to top-seeded UMD (23-1, 6-1) in the national championship game in front of 10,311 at Johnny Unitas Stadium on Sunday night.

The 15 goals allowed matched a season high, in the season’s most important game.

“They’re tough for anyone to match up against because they’re so athletic in the midfield and I think that’s where they dominated us,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “That’s why they’re national champs.”

Syracuse played an aggressive style of defense, as evidenced by the high foul numbers. Maryland head coach Cathy Reese said the Orange does a good job of doubling on the ball, and forces the offense to always think twice.

She said the defense is high risk, high reward. The risk outweighed the reward Sunday.

“Our goal going into tonight’s game was to really work the ball around until we found our wide-open look,” Reese said. “It didn’t matter what the defense threw at us.”

The normally high-pressure defense became frustrated as the fouls mounted. Gait was issued a yellow card by the referees with 10 minutes left in the second half, following a turnover by SU defender Natalie Glanell.

SU senior Liz Harbeson was disqualified in the second half after receiving a second yellow card.

After Brenna Rainone turned over the ball on SU’s final possession, Alyssa Murray desperately tried to wring the ball free and get possession.

But a whistle for a foul blew almost immediately.

“I don’t think it’s ever a game plan to go out and foul the other team, but I think we were just trying to play tough,” a frustrated Mock said following the loss. “It was difficult and not many things were going our way.”

The Syracuse offense did its job, scoring 12 goals on just 22 shots. Maryland, though, needed only 25 shots to convert on its 15 goals.

The SU offense nearly bailed out the defense in the final minutes with a furious four-goal rally in the span of just under three minutes, but it wasn’t enough.

“We needed to make sure the ball stayed in our hands and didn’t get back into their hands because they were able to score when they had it,” Reese said.

When Maryland had the ball it answered.

After Syracuse cut the Terrapins’ lead to one goal at 5-4 early in the game, Taylor Cummings controlled the draw and proceeded to run unhindered at the goal.

It took her only eight seconds to kill the Syracuse momentum. The Orange wouldn’t get that close the rest of the game.

“We didn’t stop the runs,” Gait said. “They got some big ones and stretched the lead.

“We needed to stop those runs.”

Published on May 26, 2014 at 2:41 am

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3