By Danny Chung-A-Fung

Maryland women’s soccer had not won a game this season when they did not score first, and early in the second half, it seemed to be heading in the same direction.

But in an unlikely turn of events, a miracle from ‘Heaven’ provided the Terps a late goal to defeat Indiana, 2-1.

Maryland women’s soccer looked to rebound from their first Big Ten loss at Penn State last Thursday, welcoming the Indiana Hoosiers (3-2-2, 0-0-0 B1G) to Ludwig Field.

The Hoosiers came to College Park fresh off a tough draw against Illinois last Friday, and the Terps had never won a game against Indiana before in College Park. 

Junior Lisa McIntyre had a golden opportunity to get the Terps on the board early in the fourth minute, but it was just high of the right-side goal. 

The Hoosiers’ best chance in the first half came in the 23rd minute by senior forward Marisa Grzesiak, but it was swatted away by sophomore goalkeeper Faith Luckey.

In the 51st minute, Indiana freshman defender Grace Hamm headed it in for the game’s first goal, giving the Hoosiers the second-half lead. 

But in the 59th minute, Terps junior forward Kelsey Smith struck to add her team-leading fourth goal of the season. This was the first goal scored by the Terps since Aug. 28th against Navy and Smith’s first goal in over two months.

The Terps’ next best opportunity to score in the second half came in the 72nd minute was from sophomore midfielder Ellie Egeland, who had two total shots in the game. Egeland leads the team with 22 shots.

Junior forward Eva Mowery had another missed opportunity for the Terps in the 79th minute off a nice pass from her teammate Genna Davitian, but it was just left of the goal.

But with just under 4 minutes left, freshman forward Mckinley Heaven found the back of the net to give the Terps the lead. 

It would prove to be the game-winning goal.

This was the Terps’ first goal in B1G play since their season finale vs. Rutgers on October 27, 2024.

“Honestly, just an amazing feeling, very surreal, and I was really glad I could be there for my teammates,” Heaven said after the game.

Maryland improves to 5-4-0 and picks up their first Big Ten win of the season after only having one conference win all of last season.

Head coach Michael Marchiano was proud of his team’s effort on the field tonight. 

“I think from the first minute to the last minute, the level was pretty good,” Marchiano said. “We gave ourselves a chance to win… that goal late in the game gave us the ability to win the game, but for sure it was a team effort tonight.”

This win is Marchiano’s second Big Ten win since taking over midway through last season. The Terps’ five Big Ten goals shows immense improvement from the previous regime. 

Heaven praised her head coach for how he prepared them in practice. 

“He’s really good at uplifting us,” Heaven said. “We talk a lot at practice about where we can improve and keeping our confidence no matter the result.”

The Terps return to Ludwig Field on Sunday to take on another B1G rival from the state of Indiana, the Purdue Boilermakers, who are at the top of the conference with 3 points.

Marchiano emphasized that in order to build off the momentum, his team needs to build off the confidence and take it into training the next few days. 

“We’re all going to be measured on the victories and the defeats, and so we want to keep stacking them up,” Marchiano said.  

Kickoff against the Boilermakers is at 12pm on Sunday, and you can listen to the game live on WMUC Sports.