FAIRFAX, Va. – After beating Stony Brook Friday night, head coach Brian Pensky emphasized the positive nature of picking up fouls, as it indicated to him his team was playing aggressively.
On Sunday night, the Terps were whistled 16 times fewer than in the Stony Brook win, but the aggression was still present in the second half of the team’s 1-0 win against George Mason.
“I thought we were sluggish in the first half,” Pensky said. “It took a while to get our legs under us, but we just worked.”
In the 67th minute, freshman Molly Dreska led an attack into the offensive zone, and made a centering pass to Sarah Sample, who headed the ball to Kelly Rozumalski. Rozumalski, who was streaking into the box, put a shot past Patriots’ goalkeeper Kasey Davenport.
“[The passes] were really nice,” Rozumalski said. “They couldn’t have been more perfect.”
The Terps didn’t stop attacking after they got the game’s only goal, continuing to drive deep into the Patriots’ defensive end and challenging Davenport.
Having control of the ball for the much of the remainder of the half, the Terps held onto their one-goal lead and left George Mason with the win.
Goalkeeper Nikki Resnick picked up her fifth shutout of the season. She stopped five shots, including a highlight save in which she laid out horizontally to her right, to keep the game knotted at 0-0 early in the second half.
The Patriots made a big rush toward the goal with around four minutes left, but the defense held stout and dug deep to prevent a tie score.
“The second game of the weekend is all about guts,” Pensky said. “It’s about creating the chance for yourself, finishing it, and then just playing with guts. And we did that tonight.”
Both teams went into the half scoreless, after 45 minutes predominantly played in the midfield, as the Terps and Patriots volleyed the ball back and forth without many dangerous scoring chances.
The game’s pace picked up after the teams came out of the locker rooms for the second half and played with more aggression, as Pensky enjoyed seeing.
“You saw Mary Casey tonight defending,” he said. “Mary’s got the biggest heart in the world. I absolutely love that kid. She defends her tail off.”
Coming into the game, the Terps and Patriots were mirror images of each other, both holding 3-3-1 records, and both struggling to put a consistent offense together.
Before being blanked by Resnick, the Patriots were shutout twice in a row, just as the Terps had been before scoring twice against Stony Brook.
On Friday night, the Terps downed the Seawolves and snapped another 200-plus minute scoring drought with a 25-yard blast by freshman Maureen Dowling, with just five seconds to go in the first half.
The goal – Dowling’s first as a Terp – gave the team much needed momentum heading into the locker room, and sparked a 2-0 victory for the Terps.
“It was so exciting, and it made us come together a lot more,” Dowling said of Saturday’s game. “We’ll definitely come out a lot stronger on Sunday. I think this will carry over.”
And just how the freshman Dowling predicted, it did carry over.
Using a new 3-5-2 formation, the Terps looked like a different team over the weekend, and the positive results made it show.
“I love this new formation,” Rozumalski said. “I think it gives out wide the flanks more room for us to run. It’s really hard running-wise, but if we work hard, I like it a lot.”
“Two games, no goals against,” Pensky said about the new-look team. “So far, so good.”
Contact reporter Mark Selig at mseligdbk@gmail.com.
