Maryland men’s soccer defeats Brown 2-1 on a go-ahead goal in 82nd minute

Photo courtesy of Allison Mize/Maryland Terrapins

Maryland looked to be headed to another 1-1 draw after conceding a 78th-minute equalizing goal to Brown. But transfer Max Rogers stepped up in the 82nd minute and propelled a soaring free kick into the top right corner to beat the keeper and grab a winner for the Terps. 

Maryland men’s soccer (2-1-2) defeated Brown (1-1), 2-1, to earn its second victory. Rogers netted his first goal as a Terp after joining from Yale in the offseason. 

“You could sort of tell in that second half it was going to take something pretty special for either team to come out with the win,” Rogers said. “As a lefty, you kind of dream of that little, you know, just a touch off to the right there to get it up and over the wall. I saw it and finally, it paid off.” 

The Terps started on the front foot, looking to end their recent inconsistent offensive output. Maryland attempted nine shots with four on target in the first half. 

Colin Griffith fell in the box after a push from Greyson Mitchell to win an early Maryland penalty in the 10th minute. Leon Koehl buried his shot in the left-side netting, scoring his second penalty of the season.

Koehl has stepped up as the penalty kick taker this season after Maryland shot 0-4 from the spot last season. Coach Sasho Cirovski says Koehl asked for the role in the spring and has continued to execute with confidence, securing the full-time job.

“It’s just practice,” Koehl said. “I got the confidence, so far I’ve scored every goal. I saw the keeper was going very early so I just put it in the left corner.” 

Griffith looked to jumpstart his season after an up-and-down start. He led the team with three shot attempts, a season-high for the forward. 

Right back Alex Nitzl played a part in the attack, often stepping into the midfield to assist the Terps in buildup play while Maryland shifted to a back three or two depending on the situation. 

But the same difficulties creating dangerous chances started to arise again for Maryland later in the first half and throughout the second half. The Terps attempted zero shots in the second half before Rogers’ goal. 

“I think in that second half, we weren’t playing our best football,” Rogers said. “But the really great teams, the really successful teams, find a way to grind out results even when they’re not playing their best stuff, so it’s super promising and hopefully we can generate a bit of momentum with that win.” 

Cirovski opted to change most players in attack towards the end of the first half. He kept the subs in until 15 minutes into the second half when he inserted some starters back in. The offense lacked some of its early ruthlessness with the subs in the game. 

Maryland has scored four goals on 45 shot attempts in four games, excluding its 5-0 domination against outmatched Detroit Mercy.

Recent addition Cristiano Fitzgerald played the most minutes of his Maryland career in just his 2nd appearance. He showed his speed up the left side but failed to make a significant impact.

On the other side, Brown continued the physical play it showed in its season opener against Lehigh, where the Bears finished with 22 fouls. Brown fouled the Terps 19 times with Stefano D’Agostini picking up an early yellow card.

Brown started to threaten more offensively as the half wore on. Charlie Adams and Kyle Gee both attempted late shots but were unable to find the back of the net. 

The Bears controlled more of the possession in the second half as Maryland dropped back to protect the lead. Brown attempted to find a leveler primarily off set pieces but mostly failed to win key headers.

The Terps looked like they would comfortably cruise to a 1-0 win but Brown found a goal out of nowhere. Lorenzo Amaral scored the first goal of his career, rocketing a shot into the top right corner after Maryland was caught out by a long throw-in.

But Rogers’ late free-kick took the wind out of the Bears’ sails, confining them to their first loss of the year. Maryland will look to build on the win when it hosts San Diego State on Monday.