Coming of age

Sasho Cirovski will notice some familiar faces when he looks down Ludwig Field's sideline tonight at Boston College.

That doesn't mean the coach's Terrapins men's soccer team will open ACC play against the same Eagles squad it faced in recent years.

No. 8 Boston College, after all, is no longer the group of fresh-faced recruits who suffered a rain-drenched, 2-0 loss at Ludwig Field on Sept. 11, 2009. Despite the relatively tight score that night, the Terps dominated the ball like a bully on a kickball field, outshooting the Eagles, 23-9.

Tonight, the Terps will face a senior-laden Boston College team that's stepping into its relatively new role among the ACC's elite. The Eagles have quadrupled their opponents' scoring total this season, and are coming off an impressive 2-0 win at then-No. 22 Dartmouth on Sunday.

"This is a group we have seen develop over the last few years," Cirovski said. "One year they started seven freshmen, and now those kids are juniors and seniors, so it's a very veteran team."

Much like the Terps' three-headed attack of forwards Casey Townsend and midfielders Patrick Mullins and John Stertzer, Boston College relies heavily upon three upperclassmen for the majority of its scoring. Senior Amit Aburmad and juniors Kyle Bekker and Charlie Rugg have accounted for more than 80 percent of the Eagles' goals this season.

In a rare battle of unbeatens, the No. 2 Terps (4-0) will try to open their season with a five-game winning streak for the first time since 2004. The Eagles (4-0), on the other hand, are aiming to go undefeated through their first five games for the first time in program history.

Cirovski's squad hopes to prevent that feat by building upon an already dominant start. The Terps have outscored their opponents, 12-2, and have already tallied two shutouts this season.

"We're in a really good place right now, and we're just going to try to keep going," said Townsend, who leads the Terps with four goals this season.

And as is the case with many veteran squads, Boston College has built quite a reputation for its physical style of play. So far this season, the Eagles are averaging 12 fouls per game.

That statistic probably won't scare the Terps, however. Although they're not necessarily known for their physicality, they've proved more than willing to mix it up when necessary. They tallied 16 fouls to Boston College's 13 during a double-overtime, 1-1 tie in Newton, Mass., last season.

"Obviously when you head into ACC play, the physical side of it is very important," Mullins said. "Because it's very quick and very physical, especially with a team like Boston College."

The Terps have shown flashes of brilliance this season. They posted three-goal outbursts in the second period of matches against No. 12 West Virginia and No. 25 St. John's, and they even scored four goals within the opening 30 minutes of a home win over Stanford last week.

But as the Terps prepare to step under the bright lights of Ludwig Field tonight, they understand that mere flashes likely won't beat a top-10 team. They want a complete game.

And that's what they'll need if they hope to push around Boston College as they did two years ago.

"Oh, we feel really good," Townsend said. "We're really confident."

TERPS NOTE: Cirovski has yet to announce whether defender Alex Lee will be available for tonight's game. The senior co-captain left midway through the second half of the Stanford game with an undisclosed leg injury and arrived at Sunday's 2-1 win over Radford in street clothes.

letourneau@umdbk.com