In order to score last night against Loyola, the Terrapin men’s soccer team found itself having to avoid fouls and sometimes even fights as it moved the ball in the attacking zone.

The worst of it came minutes into the second half, with the game scoreless, when junior Terp midfielder Maurice Edu went up for a header in front of the goal and collided with Loyola’s goalkeeper Milos Kocic. Afterwards, a little drama ensued.

“I was on the ground and started getting up – he was kind of standing over me,” Edu said. “I just kind of stood up and [the situation] kind of just got away from me. They just all came in and tried to escalate it more than what it really was.”

A momentary scuffle ensued, and most of the players on the field rushed to the box to get involved. The referees pulled the players apart and then gave Edu and Kocic yellow cards.

But minutes after the scrum in the box, the Terps finally broke through.

Edu again received a ball in the box, this time off a beautiful header from freshman midfielder Drew Yates.

Edu chipped a perfect ball off his head into the side of the net, propelling the Terps to an ugly 1-0 win at Ludwig field.

“It was kind of a relief – finally we got one,” Edu said.

The Greyhounds’ game plan seemed simple – play a scrappy, defense-only game to try and frustrate the Terps into making mistakes. At times, all 11 Loyola players were playing defense inside the Terps’ attacking third.

“They try to get in your head, and your guys just try to keep your cool and stay focused at the task at hand,” Edu said of the rough game. “We did a pretty good job just keeping our cool and trying to play soccer.”

In total, the Greyhounds fouled the Terps 28 times, received eight yellow cards and didn’t have a shot on goal. For most of the game, the Greyhounds played with only one player moving up on offense – obviously playing for a 0-0 tie that would have been a huge accomplishment against the defending national champions.

“[We] handled the disruption very well,” Terp coach Sasho Cirovski said. “They showed maturity beyond their years.”

The initial scuffle between the teams came at the end of the first half. At that point in the game, Loyola had already committed more than 10 fouls. After Yates fell on top of the ball, he fell victim to the foot of a Loyola player. Once Yates got kicked, the Terps reacted similarly to how Loyola reacted when Edu got tangled with Loyola’s goalie.

For almost the entire game, the Terps had control of the ball in the attacking third, but they only scored once as Loyola executed its defensive gameplan.

The last time the two teams played in 2004, the Terps scored nine times.

“We missed a lot of chances,” Cirovski said. “In the first half we had three or four high quality chances and another four or five in the second half, and they just weren’t going in.”

The match against Loyola came sandwiched in between two tough conference games. After watching his players get beat up from the fouls all game long, Cirovski said that in the future he might reconsider scheduling a non-conference game against a team with nothing to lose.

“I think I better rethink what we do in between ACC games,” Cirovski said. “Look, eight cards, zero shots and 28 fouls – I mean I would like to have seen a lot more soccer today.”

Contact reporter Bryan Mann at bmanndbk@gmail.com.