By: Johnny Moseman
For their third straight game this season, the No. 4 University of Maryland men’s soccer team needed overtime to take down Penn State 3-2 Sunday night at Ludwig Field in College Park.
And who other to score the game-winning goal than Gordon Wild. He scored the final goal of the game in the 96th minute when DJ Reeves found him right in front of the goal for his Big Ten leading eighth goal of the season.
“This team has a lot of character and a lot of quality and I think we showed it,” said Terps’ head coach Sasho Cirovski. “We just have to stop playing with fire so much cause eventually you’ll get burned.”
Tonight’s game was a tale of two halves, with the first half being all defense for both sides, while the second half was an offensive explosion by the Terps and Nittany Lions. Penn State had their best chance to score in the first half when Nittany Lion Dayonn Harris had a breakaway opportunity. The ball was played perfectly in front of him, but Maryland goalkeeper Cody Niedermeier made a great play to punch the ball away before Harris could get a shot off.
“Everyone was struggling a little bit in the first half,” Gordon Wild said. “It was tough because they (Penn State) were sitting deep and they only had two total shots.”
It took Penn State some time to pick up the pace after coming out for half time, but then after they got their first goal and that turned things up for them for the remainder of the game. Penn State got their first goal of the game in the 57th minute, which was also their first shot of the game. Dayonn Harris got behind the Maryland back line and put past Niedermeier and defender Donovan Pines for his first goal of the season. Harris also scored the Nittany Lion’s second goal of the day in a similar situation to his first when he got behind the back line and used his speed to finish.
Both of Maryland’s goals in regulation came off of penalty kicks, one by Amar Sejdic in the 70th minute and the other by Gordon Wild in the 84th minute.
Penn State only had two shots on the day, but both shots were goals, making them as efficient as possible, by definition. Maryland ended the day with 14 shots. The Terps had to bounce back twice tonight after falling behind on two occasions tonight. They had to show a sense of urgency that was not present in the first half and most of the second half.
“We have showed tremendous resiliency in situations that have demanded it,” Cirovski said.
Maryland (5-0-2, 2-0-1 Big Ten) takes on Michigan State in College Park this Friday for their next match, while Penn State (3-3-1, 1-1-0 Big Ten) faces off against Wisconsin in State College.
