The Terrapin men’s soccer team’s first road trip of the season will take them down south, straight into the heart of ACC country. But they know better than to expect any southern hospitality Saturday night in Raleigh, N.C.

They won’t have the thousands of members of the team’s unofficial fan section, The Crew, making life miserable for any opponent within earshot. Family members and friends probably won’t be found at the No. 23 Wolfpack’s Method Road Soccer Stadium.

The comforts of home will be conspicuously absent Saturday for the No. 4 Terps.

“I’m excited to play, as weird as it sounds, in a different atmosphere, opposite of what it is here,” said freshman defender Taylor Kemp, one of four defenders making their first career road start. “It will be interesting to see how I handle it and how the team does.”

What the Terps will have is a target on their backs.

The team expects N.C. State to easily set a season-high attendance mark Saturday. After all, the Terps are the defending NCAA Champions and a top-five team.

But they’re also the next big obstacle in the way of a talented Wolfpack team and their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005.

“It’s going to be difficult,” Kemp said. “We’re not going to be able to hear. It’s going to be the opposite of what it is here [in College Park]. Instead of people behind us, they’re going to be pushing against us.”

“You can’t really focus on that,” defender Ethan White added. “You’ve got to focus on your game.”

The crowd will be the least of the defense’s worries. Forward Ronnie Bouemboue (12 points) and midfielder Alan Sanchez (nine points) pace a potent N.C. State offense with 10 returning starters and six seniors who probably don’t have fond memories of last year’s 2-1 loss to the Terps in Raleigh.

“I think this N.C. State team has a chip on its shoulder from last year, and rightfully so,” coach Sasho Cirovski said. “They’re a team that certainly can beat any team in the ACC, home or away, this year.”

The roughly five-hour trip to Raleigh will take the Terps from one extreme of competition to another. The team watched film Wednesday from their 7-0 dismantling of Duquesne at Ludwig Field in their last game. The same glaring gaffes and inadequacies they saw from the Dukes won’t be as apparent Saturday against a team Cirovski has repeatedly tabbed as the league’s “dark horse.”

But Cirovski said Tuesday’s scoreline is as unimportant to Saturday’s game as the masses of raucous Wolfpack fans taking it in.

“We’re confident in our approach,” he said. “The games are won inside the lines.”

shaffer@umdbk.com