Midfielder John Stertzer and the Terps defeated Virginia Tech on Tuesday after a draw with Clemson and a loss to Wake Forest in their previous two games. They have a chance to win an ACC title this weekend.

The Terrapins men’s soccer team breezed through the early part of its schedule this year with an explosive offense and suffocating defense. After it spent about half of September and all of October as the nation’s No. 1 team, it looked like coach Sasho Cirovski had created a juggernaut.

But then the past two weeks came.

First, the Terps struggled to put away an overmatched Lehigh team Oct. 23, needing an 88th minute goal from forward Patrick Mullins to emerge unscathed. Then, Clemson snapped the Terps’ 13-game win streak with a 2-2 draw Oct. 27, and No. 13 Wake Forest ended dreams of an undefeated season with a 4-2 win one week ago.

It was a stretch of adversity the Terps hadn’t faced all season. But Tuesday night, the No. 2 Terps responded with a 2-1 victory over Virginia Tech in the ACC tournament quarterfinals. The Terps will take on Clemson tomorrow night at Maryland SoccerPlex in Germantown in the tournament semifinal.

“I wouldn’t say we felt the pressure,” Mullins said of the two-game streak. “I thought we remained pretty light. Obviously, it was a tough loss. We did take that as the opportunity to learn some lessons and wanted to make sure we were even more hungry going into the ACC tournament.”

In both games against Clemson and Wake Forest, the Terps held early leads — 2-0 against the Tigers after 47 minutes, 2-1 at the Demon Deacons after 41 minutes — only to see them slip away. Earlier in the season against Rutgers, the Terps were able to battle back for the victory, but it didn’t happen these times.

When Virginia Tech tied the Terps in the 48th minute on a penalty kick, it seemed the Terps were turning in another repeat performance. But less than five minutes later, the Terps were back on top after Mullins took a corner kick from defender Mikey Ambrose and headed it past Virginia Tech goalkeeper Kyle Renfro.

“That was a great response,” Cirovski said. “I think we thought we had the game in hand, and then they got the goal on the penalty. It was a renewed energy after that. That’s the way you want your team to respond. I thought our leadership did a great job of rallying the troops.”

Mullins, the Terps’ leading scorer with 12 goals, pointed to the past two games as having a direct impact on the Terps’ effort against the Hokies. The team couldn’t — and wouldn’t — afford to have a similar result. So when the game started to mirror the past, the Terps adjusted.

“I think we learned some lessons from that. Like tonight when it got a little scrappy, a little gritty, you’ve got to dig in and play hard,” Mullins said. “We learned that from the last game and hopefully we can keep the momentum moving forward.”

Cirovski came away from the game impressed by his squad. They had responded exactly how he had hoped. While there were still things to work on, the Terps showed why they nearly went undefeated through the regular season.

“I was very happy. I thought our commitment, our energy was very good,” Cirovski said. “The quality was good for most of the match. There were times I thought we could have had more poise and more execution, but the first tournament game is always like this. This is a conference game and I expected it to be a tight one, and it was.”

In the grand scheme of the Terps’ three goals for the season — ACC regular season championship, ACC tournament championship and NCAA tournament championship — the games against Clemson and Wake Forest were just minor blips on the way to the main objectives. After clinching the regular-season title against Clemson, the Terps are two wins away from the ACC tournament title.

Then, it’s time for the NCAA tournament.

“We just had to put the pieces back together,” goalkeeper Keith Cardona said. “We had a little drop off, but it wasn’t a huge deal.”

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