For more than a month, the No. 5 Terrapin men’s soccer team’s dead-ball play didn’t have a pulse.
Entering Tuesday’s game against Seton Hall, the Terps had gone nine straight games without a goal off a set piece. Since defender Ethan White’s header off a corner kick from midfielder Matt Kassel in the team’s 7-0 trouncing of Duquesne on Sept. 15, the Terps had gone through 66 unsuccessful corner kicks and numerous other free kicks without a score.
Against the Pirates, it was midfielder Paul Torres — not Kassel, as was often the case last season — who was instrumental in snapping the ignominious streak. His swerving free kick from just wide of the penalty box skidded off the head of a Seton Hall defender before connecting with forward Jason Herrick, who headed it in from five yards to seal a 3-1 win.
“It’s one of those things where you just have to keep defining the roles and making sure you get quality services, and good things happen,” coach Sasho Cirovski said. “That was a start, and hopefully we can keep some momentum going there.”
TOUGH TRAININGAn unforgiving season schedule hasn’t made managing practice any easier for Cirovski.
This season, the Terps have had three weekdays off between games only twice. That typically leaves the day after and before games for rest, recovery and reflection but no bridge day in the middle for more extensive drills and training.
The setup of the schedule has been a constant gripe for Cirovski, who said it has forced issues such as the team’s inconsistent attack to the back burner as the injury-plagued Terps instead focus on getting healthy.
“We haven’t been able to really practice hard, so I think part of the consequence of that is [being] a little bit off here and there with weary legs,” said Cirovski, who gave his team the day off yesterday after its victory Tuesday.
CONFERENCE MESSWhile a Terp win Saturday against No. 3 Wake Forest could shut the door on the rest of the ACC in the conference championship hunt, a tie wouldn’t exactly hurt either.
The Terps top the conference standings by virtue of having played — and won — one more game than the Demon Deacons, but Wake Forest joins the Terps as the only teams in the league with just one conference loss. A win by either team Saturday would separate that squad from the rest of the pack, but a draw would actually keep the Terps in the driver’s seat.
According to the ACC’s tiebreaker guidelines, if in-season head-to-head competition between two teams with equal standing does not produce an advantage, the best record against the highest-seeded remaining team — currently, North Carolina — is used as the tiebreaker. If both the Terps and Wake Forest were to win out after a tie Saturday, the Terps’ Sept. 25 1-0 win over the third-place Tar Heels would guarantee them the top spot.
The Demon Deacons tied North Carolina, 2-2, earlier this month.
Either team’s future opponents, however, could easily shake up the standings. The Terps host No. 12 Virginia on Halloween night, while Wake Forest still has to face upset-happy Boston College and No. 19 Duke.
shaffer@umdbk.com
