The last seven years between No. 23 Maryland men’s soccer and Penn State have been oddly one-sided, yet ultra-competitive.
The Terps endured four losses and three draws in their previous seven matches against the Nittany Lions. All of those defeats were by one goal, and Maryland had a lead in five of the matches.
Amid the stretch of craziness, Tuesday’s meeting in State College might have been the pinnacle.
After freshman Farouk Cisse gave Maryland a first-half lead, the Nittany Lions responded with a pair of goals on both sides of the break. The second came in the 85th minute — with the Terps down to 10 men because of a red card — but Maryland’s Lasse Kelp equalized from a free kick just a minute later.
Kelp nearly multiplied his heroics with a shot off a set piece inside the final five seconds, but Nittany Lions goalkeeper Jonathan Evans parried the strike away as time expired, ending the match with a 2-2 result.
“We found a way to get a point on the road, so we’ll take that as a positive,” coach Sasho Cirovski said. “But we must recognize that some of the mistakes we made today cannot happen again.”
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Freshman Rocket Ritarita won a Maryland (5-0-2, 1-0-1 Big Ten) free kick from about 25 yards out with five seconds remaining. Just a few minutes removed from scoring a left-footed free kick from inside the penalty arc, Kelp again looked to bend in a set piece.
The senior sent a looping ball toward the goal, but Evans stayed rooted to his spot and swatted it away with a wall of players right in front of him to end the contest.
Kelp had rarely featured as a set-piece taker for Maryland this season, but coach Sasho Cirovski was confident in his senior defender.
“We’ve seen him do this before in training, and there was no one else we wanted to have on the ball at that point,” Cirovski said. “Thankfully, we had a chance to chat about it on the sideline because there was a stoppage in play for the review.”
Having Kelp take the initial free kick was ultimately a sound move, but the decision may have been expedited by Stephane Njike’s exclusion.
The sophomore was given a red card for serious foul after deliberately kneeing a Penn State (2-4-2, 0-2-1 Big Ten) player in the midsection in the 73rd minute.
Njike’s red card compounded what was already a bleak stretch for Maryland.
Freshman Farouk Cisse handed Maryland a 1-0 lead with his first career goal in the 36th minute. Momentum drastically shifted after that.
The defensively-minded Nittany Lions took one shot in the first 41 minutes. With more offensive urgency, Penn State fired three attempts — one of which required a close-range kick save by goalkeeper Laurin Mack — in the final four minutes of the half.
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Penn State continued controlling the game on the other side of halftime, eventually leveling the match at 1-1 in the 51st minute. The Nittany Lions created the equalizer by dispossessing defensive midfielder Chris Steinleitner inside the Terps’ penalty box.
Maryland’s defenders were uncharacteristically clumsy at several points throughout the second half. When the Nittany Lions took a 2-1 lead in the 85th minute, forward Christian Dionne pounced on a loose ball and converted from inside the box while a trio of Maryland players called for a foul that wasn’t awarded.
“We made a couple of crucial mistakes on both goals,” Cirovski said. “We tried to over play, and that’s something we have to correct.”
Since last Friday against Pittsburgh, the Terps have now conceded three goals from open play in less than 100 minutes. Maryland hadn’t allowed a goal in that fashion through the first five matches this season.
A Maryland back line that had been formidable easily put forth its worst showing of the season. On the other end, Maryland’s forwards struggled to consistently create and finish chances, so a pair of defenders provided both scores instead.
“Very mixed feelings with today’s match,” Cirovski said. “Really gritty performance by our guys late in the game, but it was a game I felt we gifted away.”
