Wisconsin kicked the ball in the air on the right side of Maryland keeper Jamie Lowell. Lowell tracked the high-arching ball and reached out to make the catch. The ball hit the hands of Lowell and as he went to the ground the ball bounced free. The ball found the foot of Badger forward Markie Hrvojevic who kicked it to the back of the net, his first goal of the season.

Maryland Men’s soccer lost its second straight game, 1-0, this time to the Wisconsin Badgers Sunday afternoon. The loss drops the Terps’ conference record to 0-2-1 and their overall record to 1-4-2 on the season.

“Once again a very frustrating result,” head coach Sasho Cirovski said. “Another case of a missed opportunity on the penalty kick and a costly error at the back that cost us the three points.”

Hrvojevic’s goal came in the 71st minute. The teams were deadlocked at zero up until that point with the defenses controlling the flow of action. Maryland only registered two shots in the second half, one of them on target, from Luca Costabile. Costabile’s kick was easily caught by Badger keeper Nate Crockford, his only save of the game.

The Maryland defense did its best to keep the Terps in the game, turning away six of the seven Badger shots. The Terps offense struggled to mount a counterattack off the defensive performance. Maryland made one last offensive push with the seconds winding down, but Stefan Copetti was called for a foul, turning possession over to the Badgers.

Copetti’s first shot of the game came within the first two minutes of play attempting to get a dormant Maryland offense on the board first. The opportunities dwindled as the half went on but in the 25th minute a foul was called on Wisconsin setting up a Maryland penalty kick. Max Riley took the kick for the Terps, sending it high over the goal, making Maryland 0-3 on penalty kicks this season.

“It’s frustrating because these are the guys that show well in from training and you have to trust what you see in training,” said Cirovski. 

The Terps had one more shot in the half but it was turned away by the Badger defense sending the two teams into the half scoreless. 

Maryland has now been held scoreless in two of their three conference games this season. On the season, it was Maryland’s fourth scoreless performance. The Terps haven’t won a game since their first victory of the year against UNC Greensboro on August 27. 

The Terps will play on Friday against Northwestern at Ludwig Field in search of their first conference win of the season.