No. 4-seed Maryland men’s soccer freshman forward Rocket Ritarita had an astonishing regular season.

When the lights shined bright in the postseason, the freshman phenom did not shine away. 

In the Terps’ second-round win over North Carolina on Nov. 23, Ritarita was the only Terp to score in regulation. 

On Saturday, he was a part of both first-half goals and led the way to victory, 3-0 over No. 13-seed UConn. 

Maryland entered Saturday’s game shorthanded — they were without junior midfielder Leon Koehl. Thus, junior Kenny Quist-Therson earned his first start of the season. 

On the defensive end, sophomore Jace Clark was banged up from a leg injury against UCLA, thus freshman Farouk Cisse had his second consecutive start. 

Maryland controlled the entire first half, piling up 11 shots and five on target. The Terps limited UConn to just one attempt and were never threatened with a scoring chance. 

The Terps pressured goalkeeper Kyle Durham right away.

The Terps’ first shot of the match came in the second minute from sophomore forward Stephane Njike. Aside from Maryland’s two scores, it was its most dangerous chance in the first half.

After senior midfielder Joseph Umberto Picotto suffered an ankle injury in the 25th minute. Ritarita was subbed in and he made his presence known immediately. 

One minute later, Ritarita took a shot from the left side just inside the box, iy ricocheted off the goalkeeper and onto the foot of senior midfielder Albi Ndrenika.

Ndrenika netted his first postseason goal this year.

Late in the first half, Ritaritra found the back of the net for his second career postseason goal. The freshman received a diagonal pass from senior midfielder Chris Steinleitner and dribbled through a couple of UConn defenders before delivering a strike from outside the box to give the Terps a two-goal lead. 

In the final minutes, junior forward Luke van Heukelum sealed the win with a chip shot from just outside the box. 

The rest of the second half stayed scoreless, with Maryland’s defense staying sharp even after senior defender Lasse Kelp took a couple of hard falls. Outside of a couple of early second-half pressure, UConn was unable to generate any momentum on the attack.

With the win, the Terps advanced to the quarterfinals and will face the winner of Washington and No. 12 Stanford.