Less than a minute into the start of an overtime period Maryland women’s soccer had fought back late to force, Rutgers ended the game with a goal that made midfielder Anissa Mose’s 87th-minute equalizer moot.
Scarlet Knights defender Kenie Wright played a short ball into the box, and forward Amirah Ali turned and placed a shot perfectly into the left corner of goal past diving goalkeeper Rachel Egyed.
With the golden goal, Rutgers narrowly edged the Terps, 2-1, after having lost its lead on Mose’s score.
The Terps struggled to complete passes and finish chances in the final third until it was too late, and the Scarlet Knights capitalized on their first chance in the added period to hand Maryland its second straight loss.
“I loved that we just didn’t go down easy,” coach Ray Leone said. “It was hard. [Rutgers is] a great team, and not many people have scored on them… but we’ve got to get better in overtime.”
Trailing by a goal in the waning moments of regulation, Maryland midfielder Hope Lewandoski lined up for a 40-yard free kick.
The Scarlet Knights easily cleared the arching first ball into the box, but the clearance dropped to the feet of Mose. The sophomore struck the ball with the outside of her right foot, and the slicing attempt flew past the reach of goalkeeper Megan McClelland to level the score and send the match to extra time.
Maryland had gone down a goal about 10 minutes earlier. Ali corralled a loose ball that chipped over the Terps backline and sent a skidding pass across the box to forward Nneka Moneme, leaving Egyed with little hope of keeping the game scoreless.
Moneme tapped in the go-ahead goal, finally breaking through Maryland’s stout defense. Egyed and the defense had weathered an 8-1 Rutgers shot advantage at halftime, and while Mose delivered a clutch goal, the Scarlet Knights still finished with a 13-6 final tally.
Midway through the second half, Egyed connected with forward Mikayla Dayes on a long cross-field goal kick. Dayes took a step to balance herself and sent a blistering shot towards goal, but the strike ricocheted off the right crossbar.
Dayes’ near-miss drew gasps from the rain-soaked home crowd, yet the match remained scoreless. The long-range effort was Maryland’s best chance to find the net during a game with minimal offensive production up to that point.
“I definitely think [we’re making] progress,” Mose said. “We’re moving the ball better… but we have to get more [shots] off, improve more connecting the ball once we get it from our backline to our front six.”
Despite Rutgers’ first-half shot advantage leading to Egyed making five saves, none of the attempts before halftime put much pressure on the redshirt senior.
Despite Moneme’s six-foot frame posing an obvious mismatch, Maryland handled Rutgers’ pressure. Defenders Kady Badham, Adalee Broadbent and Niven Hegeman, none of whom are taller than 5-foot-8, limited Moneme to just one shot before she scored the late-game goal.
Still, Rutgers’ probing attack proved too much for Maryland to keep out. Two goals from the Scarlet Knights handed Maryland its second conference loss of the year early in the Big Ten slate.
“It was a devastating loss, no doubt about it,” Leone said. “But as a coach trying to build this program, that was the best they’ve played in the three years we’ve been here. It was a remarkable level of play against a great team and great program.”
