LI's Jack McDonald, Maryland return to men's lacrosse national title game for fourth time in five years
The Maryland Terrapins storm the field to celebrate making the finals after defeating Syracuse during the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship semifinal at Gillette Stadium on Saturday, May 24, 2025. Credit: Spenser Hasak
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Jack McDonald clearly wanted to soak in all of it. The win, the atmosphere, the emotions. All of it.
Oh, he’d felt them all before. As a fifth-year graduate student for Maryland, this was his fourth time coming out on top in an NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse semifinal and advancing to the championship game. He also helped the Terrapins win the title three years ago.
But there he was, spending the moments after Maryland’s overwhelming 14-8 victory over Syracuse climbing the steps that lead from the field to the stands at Gillette Stadium to share high-fives and hugs with family and friends . . . and more than a few strangers.
He stopped for signatures and selfies, too. Anything to make the moment last. It felt as if he wanted to make a connection with each of the 31,524 fans in the building.
“I’m so excited,” the long-stick midfielder from South Side High School told Newsday. “After five years, it does hit you that it ends at a certain point, so I’m just making sure I take every second to enjoy the experience because I’m not going to get it again.”
Well, not after Monday, at least. That’s when McDonald will play his last college game as Maryland faces top-seeded Cornell for the trophy.
It’ll be the first time the top two seeds in the tournament field will play for the championship since 2005, when Johns Hopkins beat Duke. It also will be a rematch of the 2022 title game in which Maryland defeated Cornell, 9-7.
“Hopefully history repeats itself,” McDonald said.
Maryland repeated itself quite a bit in the first half of Saturday’s semifinal, rattling off eight straight goals in a demonstration of robotic redundancy and holding Syracuse scoreless for a span that stretched nearly half the game (26:54).
Still, sixth-seeded Syracuse (13-6) was able to use a mini-run of three straight goals in the third quarter — one from Michael Leo (St. Anthony’s, Seaford) — to close the gap to 10-5 and make things at least partially interesting.
That’s when McDonald added to his brimming memory bank. After a stop by Maryland goalie Logan McNaney (14 saves), the Terrapins, who had been wringing the shot clock dry, went into transition mode, with McDonald leading the clear. He dished off to Eric Spanos (four goals, one assist), who buried a shot to quell the Orange momentum and give Maryland an 11-5 edge with 4:22 remaining in the third.
“I thought the biggest goal of the game was Spanos’ goal from J-Mac,” Maryland coach Jon Tillman said. “They had controlled that third quarter for about six minutes and were grinding us down. Getting that goal was huge.”
McDonald also played a part in the defense shutting down Syracuse’s offense and holding its leading point-scorer, junior Joey Spallina (Mount Sinai), to zero goals and one assist that didn’t come until 2.9 seconds remained.
Spallina finished the season with a team-high 90 points, but this was the second straight year that Syracuse was eliminated in an NCAA Tournament game in which he was held without a goal (he was pointless last year in a quarterfinal loss to Denver).
“We play our offense and some days are tougher than others,” Syracuse coach Gary Gait said. “It wasn’t just Joey who struggled . . . He had some looks that he wasn’t able to hit, but that goes for everybody.”
Will Schaller was the Maryland defender who cloaked Spallina throughout the afternoon.
“He’s the best cover man in the country,” McDonald said.
It was a humbling ending to an otherwise successful season in Syracuse. The 11-time national champion Orange made it to the Final Four for the first time since 2013, which made this a new experience for just about everyone in the program.
“We played the first half like it was the first time we’ve been here in 12 years,” Gait mused of the slow start.
Despite the lopsided loss, even Tillman had praise for the opponent.
“Syracuse is back,” he said.
Maybe.
But it’s Maryland — and mainstay players such as McDonald — who seem as if they haven’t left.
At least not yet.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
