The Terps have lost consecutive games for the first time this season.
Maryland men’s soccer entered Tuesday night fresh off its first loss since August, looking to right the ship against the worst team in the Big Ten.
However, it feels like the Terps’ ship is starting to sink. They lost, 3-1, at Rutgers in a disastrous match, in which they gave away two penalties and their head coach was sent off.
Early in the match, Rutgers (5-9-2, 2-6-1 Big Ten) brought the tempo, while Maryland (8-3-5, 5-2-2 Big Ten) slowly settled into the match.
Its first real chance came from a set piece, when Max Rogers whipped in a well-placed cross to freshman Jace Clark at the back post. Clark directed a powerful header that looked like it might be headed for the top corner before it careened just wide into the side netting.
It wasn’t until about six minutes left in the half that the drama began. Rutgers worked the ball into Maryland’s box, where forward Nico Rosamilia picked the ball up and fired a shot that William Kulvik slid down and blocked off his hand.
The referee called nothing on the field, but instantly went to his review monitor. In the end, he stuck with his call on the field, much to the dismay of the Rutgers sideline.
It felt like the Terps would be lucky to head to the locker room with the game still level, but with 20 seconds left, Bjarne Thiesen went for what looked like a routine tackle on a much smaller Francesco Di Ponzio, who hit the turf.
The referee blew the whistle, and after another review, stuck with his original call on the field. It gave Rutgers the penalty it thought it had five minutes prior.
Ian Abbey stepped up to the spot and sent Laurin Mack the wrong way to put Maryland in a 1-0 hole. That wasn’t the only thing that Maryland had to deal with at halftime, as its head coach, Sasho Cirovski, was sent off for his complaints about the referee’s decision. It was the Terps’ first red card of 2024.
With assistant coach Brian Rowland taking the reins, Maryland needed a second-half comeback to avoid losing to the Big Ten’s last-place team and letting the regular season championship slip out of reach.
Rowland succeeded in getting the Terps to come out of the locker room in hot pursuit of an equalizer, as they held the ball consistently in Rutgers’ box early in the second half.
The closest they came was a Matias De Jesus low, driven strike toward the bottom left corner that Ciaran Dalton saved at full extension.
Against the run of play, though, the Scarlet Knights’ Curt Calov fired a shot on net, off which Rosamilia executed a beautiful rabona flick and guided it past Mack to double his team’s lead.
If Maryland was hunting an equalizer before, it was in all-out attack mode after conceding the second goal.
It found one when Rutgers had a defensive lapse that allowed Kulvik to receive the ball 10 yards away from its goal with ample space. Kulvik’s shot was blocked, but the rebound fell to De Jesus, who put it in the back of the net.
The Terps continued to hunt to rescue at least one point, but they lost all hope with three minutes left when Mack vented his frustration by shoving a Rutgers player to the ground in his own box, giving the opposition another penalty.
This time, senior captain Aidan Flynn stepped up and iced the game from the penalty spot for his first career goal.
The things to know
1. Big Ten title update. With this result, Maryland lost its opportunity to secure the Big Ten regular season title, as Indiana beat Northwestern and put itself out of the Terps’ reach. Maryland can still finish level with Ohio State — who drew against Michigan State — and earn second place.
2. The Terps lacked discipline. Maryland committed 18 fouls, received six yellow cards and its coach was sent off. While the referee did a poor job managing the match, there was no question that the Terps lacked discipline defensively. No infraction was worse than when Mack simply gave up all hope of earning a point by throwing a Rutgers player to the ground out of frustration.
3. No Koehl presented a problem. The injury to star midfielder Leon Koehl has been catastrophic for Maryland to this point. After he got hurt before halftime against UCLA, the Terps have been outscored 6-1 and have looked like a much different team.