Jereme Raley
In the 75th minute of the Terrapins men’s soccer team’s Sunday afternoon Big Ten tournament quarterfinal against Rutgers, forward George Campbell deposited his fourth goal of the year into the back of the net to cap the scoring in a 2-0 win for the top-seeded Terps.
It marked the third straight game with a goal for Campbell, who battled an ankle injury earlier this season. Less than two minutes later, though, Campbell battled for possession with a Rutgers defender and came out slightly limping.
Campbell hopped around for a few moments before shaking off the pain. He played 31 minutes off the bench and appeared OK after the game, but the brief altercation reflected the choppy, intense nature of the contest.
“They definitely played a physical game,” Campbell said. “It wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle. We [were] giving it right back to them. It was a pretty even game when it came to the physical part of it.”
Officials issued seven yellow cards — five to the Scarlet Knights — and 38 fouls. Game action rarely was fluid for more than a few moments and was littered with stoppages.
Campbell wasn’t the only Terp who was banged up during the contest. Midfielder Mael Corboz, who transferred to College Park this spring after playing two seasons at Rutgers, got in a brief altercation with Scarlet Knights defender Mitchell Taintor when a tussle for the ball left Corboz with a limp. Taintor was given a yellow card.
Not to mention early in the first half, a physical challenge sent defender Alex Crognale to the turf. After the trainers came to check on him, though, Crognale continued playing.
“A lot of the time we would check back on a ball, and they’d be right on our back,” Campbell said. “That’s what they were trying to get at.”
The Terps earned yellow cards in the 40th minute (midfielder Dan Metzger) and the 89th minute (midfielder Alex Shinsky). Still, through 19 games, the Terps are tied for the fewest yellow cards in the Big Ten at 16 and have been charged with 224 fouls, the third fewest in the conference.
“You want to be a team that plays hard, but you want to be disciplined,” coach Sasho Cirovski said. “We’ve always been one [of] the more disciplined teams in the country when it comes to how we compete and how we defend.”
Aside from the two cards, the Terps mostly refrained from confrontational play on defense, instead relying on their defenders to stymie the Scarlet Knights frontline. Defenders Chris Odoi-Atsem, Jereme Raley, Mikey Ambrose and Crognale stood strong in front of goalkeeper Zack Steffen, who made two saves.
Rutgers’ physicality, meanwhile, proved detrimental. In the 32nd minute, Shinsky was driving into the box when a defender brought him to the ground for a penalty kick. Corboz finished it for his fifth penalty-kick goal this season.
Campbell said the Terps were able to combat Rutgers’ physical play mainly because of the team’s preparation. After beating the Scarlet Knights, 3-2, in the regular-season finale Wednesday, the Terps expected that approach from their opponent.
“We had talked before the game that they were going to be very direct,” Campbell said. “They were going to put balls in, try to flick them on you, try to body us up. For the most part, we did a great job of trying to counter it and figure it all out.”
On Friday, the Terps will challenge another physical team in No. 5-seed Michigan State. The Spartans are second in the Big Ten with 238 fouls.
The Terps have made significant strides since falling to the Spartans, 1-0, on Sept. 19, as they’re on a nine-game winning streak. The team’s backline has tightened, and several scorers have emerged on the offensive end.
Yet their disciplined style of play hasn’t changed. And as the Terps move through the Big Ten tournament, they’ll try to maintain that self-control as the competition becomes more intense.
“It’s a playoff game,” Cirovski said, “and no play goes uncompeted.”
