Maryland men’s soccer defeats Villanova in offensive explosion, 6-4

Villanova searched for a tying goal in the 89th minute, the dying embers of the match. But the Wildcats’ aggressive efforts came back to bite them.

Maryland men’s soccer found itselves a golden counterattack off a corner. Kimani Stewart Baynes looked up and saw Villanova’s goalkeeper well off his line, racing back towards the net. 

Stewart-Baynes raced up the field and took his chance well, passing the ball into the net as the crowd erupted for the game-sealing goal.

“It’s been a rough season for us so far, but … it’s how we bounced back,” Stewart-Baynes said. “The connections are flowing, the locker room is buzzing, so I’m happy with the performance.” 

Maryland (3-6-2) took home the ridiculous offensive affair, 6-4, over Villanova (1-5-4). The victory secured its first win streak of the season.

Each team’s offense exploded over the first 45 minutes for a 3-3 scoreline before the halftime whistle.

Maryland’s offensive explosion started early with a pair of freshmen. Stewart-Baynes broke the ice after controlling a pass from Luke Van Heukelum, making a nifty move to open up space and fire a shot past the near post to make it 1-0 in favor of the Terps.

The Terps’ next goal came from Stefan Copetti after a brief break without much offensive action from the home side until the 27th minute. Max Riley unsuccessfully chipped the keeper on a break, but the save dropped right to the feet of Copetti for an easy tap-in. 

Leon Koehl curled a dangerous ball into the box off of the corner to find grad student Bjarne Thiesen for a header goal not long after in the 34th minute, taking the lead for a third time in the match at 3-2.

But Villanova responded to every Maryland goal shortly after with one of its own.

The Wildcats’ first score came in the 14th minute, six minutes after Stewart-Baynes’ goal when Vincent Petrera found an easy goal of his own, reaping the benefits of a save spilling out in front of him that the Terps couldn’t clear off the line despite their best efforts.

Villanova found goal number two three minutes after Copetti’s score. Balthi Saunders drove the ball forward into the Maryland box, drawing out the keeper right before making a sly pass to wide open Branden Johns for the easy goal, tying the match back up at 2-2.

The Wildcats weren’t done in the first half. They had the biggest highlight of the half when Gray Ricca slotted a trivela shot into the upper 90 in the 36th minute, just two minutes after Thiesen’s header. 

Ricca’s score ended the first half’s action, and the stat sheet certainly reflected the game’s offense. Maryland led in shots with a whopping 14 (8 on goal) to Villanova’s 8 (4 on goal) at halftime, yet entered the break tied at three.

“[For] a lot of our players who’ve been close or snake bit on offense … goals were going in today and they got rewarded for their good work,” coach Sasho Cirovski said. “I think that’s a big positive but we certainly have to sure things up a little bit on the defensive side of the ball.”

The Terps picked things right back up in the second half, putting an exclamation point on their offensive domination.

After a run up the left wing from Van Heukelum that forced the Wildcats’ goalkeeper to take a step up, the freshman got off a perfect pass past the goalie across the face of the net. Copetti tapped in the assist for a 4-3 lead in the 47th.

Maryland wasn’t done there though, finally notching a goal before a Villanova response in the 59th minute. Stewart-Baynes carried the ball up the left wing, cutting in and placing a perfect cross to the back post where Van Heukelum was waiting for the tap-in header, pushing his side’s lead to 5-3.

“Beautiful cross, couldn’t have been placed any better,” Van Heukelum said. “I think we’ve been looking for that a lot throughout the season and finally the plays are starting to click.”

Stewart-Baynes added one final goal for extra measure for the Terps to put them up two with less than two minutes left.

The Terps logged 29 shots in the game, 16 of them on goal. The 29 shots were the most by a Maryland team since Aug. 30, 2015 (31 against St. John’s).

The Wildcats struck in the 74th minute — courtesy of Johns’ second goal of the night — to trim their deficit down to one. But Stewart-Baynes’ nail-in-the-coffin score in the 89th minute ended any hopes for Villanova.