When Maryland men’s soccer won an early free kick Wednesday against Rutgers, midfielder Eli Crognale elected not to cross it. Instead, he ran forward three steps and passed wide to defender Johannes Bergmann, who cut back onto his left foot to serve the ball into the box.
The dangerous pass found a well-positioned forward Sebastian Elney, whose header was tipped by goalkeeper Rafael Pereira and rang off the crossbar.
On a corner kick less than two minutes later, Crognale decided to make the cross himself. Forward Eric Matzelevich was on the end of it, and his shot hit the crossbar, too. This time, the ball ricocheted down into the net for the game’s first goal.
The Terps honed in on their emphasis on set pieces against the Scarlet Knights en route to a 2-0 shutout on the road. Maryland’s late goal came in the run-of-play, but its corners and free kicks stood out in the victory.
“Our set pieces were more dangerous than maybe all year,” coach Sasho Cirovski said. “We had some good service from Eli and the runs and timing were a lot sharper. I think we’re closer to becoming a threat on set pieces.”
[Read more: Maryland men’s soccer beats Rutgers, 2-0, for 1st multi-goal win this season]
Last season, Bergmann and midfielder Amar Sejdic took most of Maryland’s corner kicks, while former Terps forward Gordon Wild attempted free kicks within shooting range. The results were mostly poor, with the Terps scoring no goals directly from a corner kick and Wild only finishing one free kick for a goal in the 2017 campaign.
After getting very seldom playing time last year, Crognale has worked his way into the mix of set-piece takers this season along the pair of returning seniors.
“I was always coming in after them to take some set pieces during training,” Crognale said. “They would take theirs and then I would take a few after them. Gradually, mine were more consistent, I guess, and Sasho liked the way I served it as opposed to their curling and dipping ones.”
[Read more: Maryland men’s soccer’s late implosion against Wisconsin is ‘going to hurt’]
The junior didn’t take any of Maryland’s corners in the first two games of the season, but has taken all of them in the past two games and more than half on the season.
Crognale’s initial cross on the Terps’ 14th-minute corner kick was deflected back to him, so he played the ball back into the box, where it met Matzelevich. The 6-foot-2 sophomore flicked his head and scored his first goal of the season to give Maryland a 1-0 advantage.
“[Crognale] serves a very nice, true ball that our players can time a little bit better,” Cirovski said. “It’s easy for the attackers to get on it and with not as much pace as Amar and Johannes.”
While the Terps didn’t score another goal off a set piece Wednesday, they continued to threaten. Late in the first half, another Crognale corner nearly gave Maryland a two-goal lead heading into halftime. The service found an open forward Justin Gielen, whose header missed to the right, while Pereira hadn’t budged from the center of the net.
Maryland has averaged 4.4 corners per game, but none materialized into a goal until Wednesday. And after not scoring in their first four matches, the Terps now have goals in four straight games. If their set pieces remain strong, they could serve as a quality addition to a Terps offense that seems to be getting going at the right time.
“In the first couple of games we didn’t have the attacking mentality that we want,” Matzelevich said. “We’ve had a good transition of being more relentless in the attack, having more malice in the attack and really finishing off chances.”
