By: Shourjya Mookerjee

On a blistering night in East Lansing, where temperatures reached 92 degrees, Maryland men’s soccer grinded out its second 0-0 draw against a ranked Big Ten opponent in the space of two weeks. First, it was then-ranked No. 4 Indiana. On Friday night, it was No. 6 Michigan State.

While the game was a scoreless draw, it was by no means an uneventful one. The energy at DeMartin Soccer Complex was immense, as the two teams faced off in front of a record crowd of 4,678.

Junior midfielder/forward Eryk Williamson started things off early for the Terps, with a shot clanging off the post in the sixth minute, but Maryland’s best opportunity came in the 60th minute, when Junior forward Gordon Wild was presented with an opportunity in the box, off a rebound.

The ball bounced off Spartan goalkeeper Jimmy Hague, and Wild subsequently tried to head the chance in under the crossbar. Hague, however, came up big with an incredible one-handed save from point-blank range.

The Terps had a total of 20 shots, including seven shots on goal, to the Spartans’ nine. Michigan State, however, produced the more efficient opportunities. In spite of having only nine shots, six of the Spartans’ chances were shots on goal.

Freshman right-back Ben DiRosa started in place of Senior captain George Campbell, as the midfielder-turned-defender was out with a hamstring injury. Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovski fielded the center-back pairing of Donovan Pines and Johannes Bergman, and usual starting left-back Chase Gasper.

Supersubs D.J. Reeves and Jorge Calix each played close to a half, as the temperature really started to take a toll on the athletes.

Maryland comes back to its home state to face UMBC in Baltimore, in a rivalry match on Tuesday at 7 p.m., before coming back to Ludwig Friday night to face Northwestern.