No. 7 Maryland men’s soccer (7-1-4) takes a break from conference play for a matchup against High Point (5-3-4) on Monday.
The Terps are playing on only two days of rest following a draw with Wisconsin Friday night.
The draw extended Maryland’s unbeaten streak to nine matches.
Even with the streak continuing, head coach Sasho Cirovski was disappointed that Maryland’s last two matches both ended in ties. Cirovski commonly cited being “unlucky” in his postgame comments, hoping that the luck can turn around going forward.
“When you hold a team to literally one shot on goal in the second half, and that shot goes in the goal, that’s tough to take,” Cirovski said. “We deserved better from our performance tonight, but that’s the harsh reality of soccer.”
Despite the disappointing outcome, many Terps notched what seemed to be their best individual performances of the season thus far.
Forward Stefan Copetti, a junior transfer from Marist, secured his second start as a Terp against Wisconsin after scoring a goal against Northwestern. Copetti has begun to come into his own as of late, putting up the same number of shot attempts in the last two matches (11) than he did across the first 10.
“Honestly, I just think getting more minutes on the field, building chemistry with the guys as the season’s going on, I can definitely feel my confidence going up,” Copetti said after the Northwestern match. “The chances I’ve been creating are very good ones, just a matter of them going in the back of the net now.”
The chances have finally started to find the back of the net, as Copetti followed up his performance against Northwestern with another goal against the Badgers. The forward put up a whopping four shot attempts in the first 22 minutes of the match, all seemingly great shots that could’ve converted. In the 48th minute, however, Copetti finally made one count, shooting a rocket off his right foot that sailed up and through the back of the net.
Copetti will look to continue his hot streak with the Big Ten tournament rapidly approaching.
Another Terp who made his mark against Wisconsin was midfielder/forward Joshua Bolma, who registered a goal and an assist. Bolma constantly created chances all night long, and he easily could’ve had another one of his three shot attempts find the back of the net.
“That was the best performance [Bolma] has had all year,” Cirovski said. “I think you can see he’s starting to get his body back and his legs back. He’s been beaten up all year. But you could sense tonight that he felt a little stronger. His play was outstanding. He was the best player on the field tonight.”
With only four matches remaining in the regular season and Maryland clinging onto the conference lead by two points, every goal matters. Ohio State and Michigan State are both on Maryland’s tails with 10 points, as Ohio State rides a three-game winning Streak and Michigan State has won four of its last five. Just one more goal against either of the Terps’ last two opponents would’ve put them up by four points, a more comfortable amount, but instead they only secured one point from each.
Now, the stakes remain high against High Point.
High Point currently ranks second in the Big South conference and is coming off a 1-0 shutout over Campbell. The Panthers rank in the middle of the pack offensively but have allowed the least goals in the conference (12).
The offensive leaders for High Point are forwards Noah Holmes (10 points, five goals) and Kaya Ignacio (seven points, three goals, one assist). Midfielder Jefferson Amaya scored the lone goal for the Panthers in their win against Campbell.
For Maryland, a potentially big match awaits following High Point with a Friday night matchup against Michigan State looming ever-so-closer. If the Terps can’t secure a win on Monday night, the Spartans will have an opportunity to tie or even overtake Maryland for the top spot in the Big Ten.
“We’re just kind of taking it game-by-game, but we can’t get too ahead of ourselves,” Copetti said. “We’ll see how things go.”
The Monday match is set for 7 p.m. and will take place at Ludwig Field in College Park.
