With the game tied in the 67th minute, a ball from Hunter George flew into the box, and a bobble from Michigan goalkeeper Hayden Evans allowed Maryland’s Stefan Copetti to capitalize.
No. 8 Maryland beat Michigan on the road to kick off Big Ten regular season play, 2-1.
Maryland, coming off two wins against DMV rivals Virginia and Georgetown, traveled to Michigan to play the Wolverines, who are having an inconsistent start to their season.
With 15 minutes remaining in the first half and not much going for either side, Maryland’s Chris Rindov got a head on the ball inside the box off of a set piece from Hunter George to put his Terps up, 1-0.
After getting the Terps on the board first, Chris Rindov made an errant pass inside his own box just two minutes later, handing the ball to Michigan’s Inaki Rodriguez, who curled it past Maryland goalkeeper Jamie Lowell to tie the game up, 1-1.
As halftime neared, Michigan continued to knock on the door with multiple high-end chances, but Lowell kept the Terps’ level heading into the half in what was a solid half for the Wolverines.
As the second half got underway, Maryland increased the pressure. Michigan couldn’t continue its clinical play from the first half, and eventually, the Terps found the net.
Following back to back chances from Copetti, the forward finally knocked it past Evans on the cleanup inside the six-yard box, his first goal as a Terrapin, giving Maryland the lead.
Maryland was tested following the goal, but Lowell held strong on the back end to close the game out, giving the Terps a Big Ten season-opening win against a Michigan team that played arguably its best all season.
“Second half, I thought we were just, you know, defensive pressure was much better, our urgency going forward was much better,” said Head Coach Sasho Cirovski.
After the win, Maryland will return home for another Big Ten contest against No. 22 Penn State.
“I think against Penn State, obviously they’re the Big Ten champions. And they, you know, they’ve had our number for the last couple of years so I think our guys are pretty fired up too, to maybe show a little bit of who we really are.” said Cirovski.
