Boston College Defeats #1 Maryland and Will Play in the 2018 National Championship Game

The Boston College women’s lacrosse team defeated #1 Maryland this evening to advance to the 2018 National Championship Game in what will go down as an instant classic. Despite going down early, the Eagles fought back and the teams spent the entire second half going back and forth trading goals, with BC ultimately earning a 15-13 victory. BC will face James Madison in the finals.

Boston College went down by 3 early in the game after losing 3 straight draw controls, but BC never got discouraged. Dempsey Arsenault scored her 60th goal of the season to get BC on the board 3 minutes into the game, but Maryland followed that up with 2 goals of their own to increase the Terrapins lead to 5-1. Tess Chandler and Maryland’s Taylor Hensh traded goals to make the score 6-2 in favor of Maryland, but then the Eagles got into their groove.

Sam Apuzzo cut Maryland’s lead in half at 13:31, and Taylor Walker, Kaileen Hart, and Cara Urbank followed up with a trio of unanswered goals to tie the game at 6. Maryland and BC would each score twice more in the first half (with BC’s goals coming from Chandler and Urbank) and the teams entered the second tied at 8.

Cara Urbank opened the scoring in the second half, completing her hat trick and giving BC a 9-8 lead. Maryland then scored a pair of goals to take a 10-9 lead, but 3 minutes later Sam Apuzzo scored off a great man-down feed from Arsenault to tie the game again. Tess Chandler gave BC the lead just a minute later, but Maryland was quick to knot things up at 11.

Dempsey Arsenault traded goals with Maryland’s Kali Hartshorn and Grace Griffin, resulting in a 13-13 tie halfway through the second. The Eagles held Maryland scoreless for 14 minutes and 47 seconds, and Sam Apuzzo picked up her 84th and 85th goals of the season to earn BC a 15-13 victory and a trip to the finals. This is BC’s second straight trip to the Championship.