Russell Melendez and Brett Makar danced behind the goal, the Johns Hopkins attacker and Maryland defender each trying to earn a modicum of space. After a series of stops and starts, Melendez finally made his move in front of the goal.

The junior attacker dove across the goal line extended, craning his head as far around as it could go with his body parallel to the SECU Stadium turf. Melendez fired a shot that whizzed past the Terps goalkeeper and gave the Blue Jays a two-goal lead.

No. 7 Johns Hopkins would hold that advantage through the game’s last four minutes to secure a 12-11 win over No. 4 Maryland, its first win over the Terps since 2019.

“He’s phenomenal, he can do stuff like that whenever he wants,” Johns Hopkins attacker Jacob Angelus said. “... When the fourth quarter hits I think he always steps up big.”

Saturday evening’s victory clinches the Blue Jays a share of the Big Ten’s regular season title (with Penn State) along with the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the conference tournament.

Those three accomplishments are all firsts for Johns Hopkins (11-4, 4-1 Big Ten) under third-year coach Peter Milliman in what’s been a rejuvenating season for the program.

Johns Hopkins, the leader in wins among all college men’s lacrosse teams, has wandered through the wilderness over the last few seasons. The Blue Jays’ last national championship came in 2007 and their last winning season came in 2018.

“[This season is] definitely different than what I’ve been used to and my senior class has been used to,” Angelus, who finished with a team-high three goals, said. “It’s just great to find our identity … we have a team that’s playing hard for each other, not just for themselves.”

Milliman finally clawed back to a .500 record for his tenure at the Baltimore school after compiling an 11-18 record through his first two years. He’d lost his first five matchups against Maryland (8-4, 3-2 Big Ten), including a 15-goal loss in the last edition of “The Rivalry” 364 days ago.

There was no such blowout Saturday as both sides traded scores. No team took a two-goal lead until Melendez’s late tally and the teams tied at every score from 0-0 to 10-10 in the process.

Maryland’s offense started hot with 16 shots in the first quarter and exited it with a 3-2 lead.

But Milliman’s defense clamped down on the Terps in the second quarter, limiting them to no shots on goal for almost the first ten minutes of the frame. Melendez, who notched two goals and three assists, helped his side even the game at three goals apiece by flipping a behind-the-back pass to Angelus for a score.

Despite that effort, the Blue Jays entered halftime trailing by one due to two quick Braden Erksa goals to close the half. Erksa tied his career-high and a team-high with four tallies.

Maryland, which could have clinched a share of the Big Ten regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, will instead be the No. 3 seed and be without a bye.

“It’s gonna be, obviously, a tough film session,” Maryland coach John Tillman said. “... Unfortunately, it just feels like we made a lot of mistakes tonight.”

Daniel Maltz, who scored four goals as well, tied the game at 10 with over 13 minutes left in what would be the final tie of the night.

With under ten minutes left, a Maryland turnover spurred a break for Johns Hopkins. The Blue Jays flicked the ball around in a series of crisp passes — the last coming from Melendez to Angelus, who ripped a goal that earned an emphatic fist pump from the former and a wave of the arms from the latter.

The Terps didn’t go away even after Melendez put them in a multi-goal hole. Maltz cut the deficit to one with under a minute left and Maryland won the ensuing faceoff. But a turnover by Zach Whittier gave the ball back to Johns Hopkins, who ran the clock out before streaming onto the field.

The powder blue uniforms mobbed the wooden crab-shaped trophy awarded to the winner of this game, one absent from the Blue Jays’ case for a few years.

Maryland players lingered on the field to watch the Johns Hopkins celebration. This game will not be the final entry in either team’s season and may not even be the final matchup between the two squads — the teams have played at least two games in every completed season since 2018.

“It’s obviously very special and it’s a great feeling, beating your rivals and winning a regular season title, but there’s so much more ahead for us,” Angelus said. “We’ll probably end up seeing those guys again and we know that.”

Varun Shankar is a junior at the University of Maryland. His work has also appeared in The Washington Post and Charlotte Observer.