Herrick and Townsend getting comfortable again up front

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Flanked by Zac MacMath to his left and Billy Cortes to his right, Terrapin men’s soccer forward Casey Townsend sat comfortably at a media table during a postgame press conference Sunday.

There, the scrappy sophomore freely discussed his game-winning goal in the Terps’ 2-0 victory at Harvard and the season’s winding path. When he began to talk about his work up top with forward Jason Herrick, however, something seemed off.

After 90 minutes of in-sync play from the tandem, seeing only half of the Terps’ designated goal-scorers — in any setting — was unusual.

After all, even if the goal gave Townsend the glory and media attention Sunday, the buildup was a certified Herrick-Townsend throwback.

It was defender Taylor Kemp who was credited with the assist for a cross Townsend somehow looped into the net, but Herrick may as well have been included on the score sheet. The junior’s near-post run dragged his marker away from Townsend and obscured the sight of Crimson goalkeeper Austin Harms, who ultimately couldn’t account for a free Townsend.

“I was sitting there naked all by myself,” Townsend said Sunday. “That was mostly it.”

Townsend’s tally won’t find its way onto any highlight reels, but at this point in the season, the Terps will take whatever they can get. And lately, they’ve gotten a lot from Herrick and Townsend.

The two forwards have combined for the game-winner in each of the Terps’ three NCAA Tournament games and half of the team’s six goals this postseason.

“Our two strikers were outstanding today,” coach Sasho Cirovski said. “It’s really nice to see that partnership really gaining its form. Casey and Jason, I thought, were a handful all game long. It was a game in which we needed to make the big plays to win.”

To even see the running mates actually running together on the same pitch was a relative novelty for Cirovski. Shortly after scoring three goals apiece in a span of 10 days following a scoreless season opener against UCLA, Townsend traded a spot in the starting lineup alongside Herrick for a seat on the bench with a nagging ankle injury.

They had to wait until late October — more than a month — to reconnect, and even when they did, they weren’t on the same page. After Townsend returned to action Halloween night against Virginia, the two combined for just one goal in their first three games together.

Fast-forward to a month later. With dozens of training sessions and hundreds of minutes together in actual game scenarios under their belts, it’s a different story.

“We’re finally getting a run of games,” Townsend said. “That’s the most important thing for us. I was out nine, 10 games, and we just lost all the rhythm and now we’ve played four, five games in a row together and it’s all coming together at the right time.”

shaffer@umdbk.com