The Terps have remained undefeated since their second game of the season.
Five minutes into the second half, the ball skipped across the box to Washington midfielder Cooper Brunell, while falling backward, Brunnell hammered a left-footed shot into Maryland men’s soccer’s top corner.
For the second time Friday night — on the other side of the country — the Terps found themselves trailing the Huskies by a goal, and at risk of losing their first conference game of the season.
Forty minutes later, Maryland left Seattle satisfied, securing a resilient, 3-2 victory on the road.
“This is a group that has a lot of grit, toughness and quality,” head coach Sasho Cirovski said, “and like I said, they’re starting to feel something, so we’re in a good place.”
It didn’t take long for the scoring to get going on Friday night. Eleven minutes into the match, Washington outside back Chris Meyers launched a gorgeous free kick from the left side of Maryland’s goal across Laurin Mack’s face into the right corner.
Maryland instantly found itself in a hole, but Max Rogers seemed unfazed.
The Australian has provided the Terps with offensive sparks through his passing all season, but this time, he did it himself. He cut in on his left foot from 20 yards ouand drove a low, hard shot into the bottom right corner to bring Maryland level.
“The first five minutes after you score or get scored on is a critical time, how you respond to that,” Cirovski said. “Twice today, we met the moment and we won the moment.”
The Huskies had more possession and better chances in the first 45 minutes — Maryland managed just four shots with two on goal — but the game stayed at 1-1 heading into the locker rooms.
On the other side of the half, though, Brunell’s goal quickly put Washington back on top, and Maryland in another hole to climb out of.
The response came even quicker this time. Less than a minute later, as he has done multiple times this year, Colin Griffith took on a defender in the box and elicited a foul, earning Maryland a penalty kick.
Midfielder Leon Koehl, stepped up to the spot looking to protect his perfect penalty success rate from the spot. He did just that, smashing the ball down the middle to make it five successful penalties in as many tries.
The Terps’ ability to answer the Huskies provided energy, as they began to hunt for their first lead of the game.
After Huskies goalkeeper Jadon Bowton denied them three times in a row, the Terps broke through. Rogers carried the ball down the right flank and spotted Griffith at the near post.
Rogers chipped it in toward Maryland’s danger man who delivered, flicking a header across into the far corner for his sixth goal in the last seven games. With 15 minutes to play Maryland all of a sudden looked poised to win.
Washington hunted for an equalizer of their own, but to no avail. The Terps head home in sole possession of first place in the Big Ten and a 5-0-1 conference record.
Three things to know
1. The Terps got help. Simultaneously to their own game, No. 2 Ohio State fell to UCLA on the road, 2-1. This loss leaves the Terps all alone at the top of the Big Ten standings with 16 points. Their next conference game comes against UCLA on Oct. 21.
2. Strong goalkeeping performance. Despite being one of Maryland’s highest-scoring games of the year, both team’s keepers impressed. Mack made a couple of important saves to preserve Maryland’s lead late and demonstrated his confidence and aggression coming out of the goal.
“He has started to emerge as one of the better goalkeepers in this league and I’m just very pleased with the way he’s coming along,” Cirovski said.
3. Koehl and Rogers stepped up. Cirovski emphasized the importance of the Terps getting offensive production from people not named Griffith. And he wasn’t the only one instrumental in the comeback. Both Rogers and Koehl recorded both a goal and an assist on the night.