By Eddie Hobbs
Third-ranked Maryland men’s soccer (10-1-3, 5-0-2) lost 1-0 against No. 13 Georgetown (10-2-1, 4-1-0) in a battle between two in-state rivals Tuesday night in heartbreaking fashion. It was Maryland’s first loss since Halloween in the 2015 season against Ohio State.
Head coach Sasho Cirovski thought that this loss was a blessing in disguise for the Terrapins this year.
“You hate to lose any time, I think in many ways this is what the doctor ordered for my team,” Cirovski said. “I think we need to bring the edge back and maybe exhale a little bit and stop dealing with this undefeated bologna. Our goal is to take this as medicine going forward.”
Georgetown came to Ludwig field winning five of its last six games, with its only loss coming to No. 6 Duke. Georgetown entered averaging 17 times per game and it also limits teams to a low amount of shots, allowing just a shade under nine shots allowed per game.
Maryland had two starters from the backline take a seat against Georgetown. George Campbell received two yellow cards, that combined for a red card, against Wisconsin last Friday. Chase Gasper limped off the field against Wisconsin with a hamstring injury, and Sasho Ciorvski noted that Gasper would not start in this game. Ben Di Rosa and Miles Stray took the places of the two defensive starters.
Maryland tried to get on the board in the opening 10 minutes. Eryk Williamson and Sebastian Elney both had opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net, but Georgetown goalkeeper, JT Marcinkowski was able to disrupt both chances.
Georgetown was not able to do much in the first half, but had one big opportunity. A Hoya forward had the ball on the near side of the field and crossed it toward the far post. The ball passed by many outstretched feet and no one could put anything on the ball as it went right past Dayne St. Clair.
Maryland dominated the first half and had a barrage of shots. The Terps made the keeper Marcinkowski work as he had five saves through the first half. Maryland had seven shots with six shots on goal, and limited the Hoyas to only one shot with one shot on goal.
Georgetown bounced back against Maryland and started to pressure the Terps to start the second half. In the 56th minute, Derek Dodson, the freshman forward for Georgetown, created an opportunity for himself as he danced around the box and put a shot on goal for Dayne St. Clair for his first save of the night.
In the 73rd minute, Eric Matzelevich gathered a ball that bounced around the box and found a streaking Williamson down the middle. Williamson struck the ball that hit the crossbar and it was the closest chance from both teams up to that point.
In the 88th minute, Christopher Lema put a perfect through ball past the Maryland center backs and found Jacob Montes for an easy chip shot past St. Clair. Rozhansky described how the play unfolded after the game.
“They had a lot of players back and we had the ball, we crossed it and their keeper caught the ball and did a quick punt,” Rozhansky said. “We had a chance to handle the situation and clear it, but we missed that chance and we had a bunch of guys up and once we missed that opportunity to clear it, the counter started, and they did a great job to finish the chance.”
Maryland has a chance for redemption against a nonconference foe in Coastal Carolina Friday night at 7 p.m. at Ludwig Field.
