In win vs. American, women's soccer allows first goal but scores five

GERMANTOWN — For a half-dozen games, the Terrapins women's soccer team had held off the inevitable. Six games came and went for the Terps, including an overtime tie with No. 2 Stanford, without a single ball finding the net behind one of their goalkeepers.

Then, in the 74th minute of an eventual 5-1 win over American last night, Eagles forward Jasmine Mohandesi broke through the defense and lobbed a shot over the head of Terps goalkeeper Yewande Balogun.

"We knew it was going to come, obviously," midfielder Olivia Wagner said.

The goal could have spelled doom against a team like Stanford. But the No. 3 Terps (6-0-1) already had a comfortable 4-0 lead when their 634 minutes of scoreless defense came to an end. And for the unbeaten squad, the game won was more important than the goal allowed.

"We talked about it the other day when we broke the record," coach Brian Pensky said. "At some point we are going to give up a goal. I thought they came back right away with a little bit of an edge and an urgency, and that was good to see."

The Terps made themselves right at home at the Maryland SoccerPlex after the week's heavy rains moved the contest with the Eagles (2-5-0) from Ludwig Field. Forward Sade Ayinde came off the bench to give the Terps goals in the 23rd and 36th minutes, and the team took a 2-0 lead into halftime.

Wagner extended the advantage with a penalty kick in the 63rd minute before an own goal by American gave the Terps a fourth tally. Freshman Shade Pratt's first career goal pushed the team to the final 5-1 scoreline.

"We try to be a low-maintenance team," Pensky said. "We just want to play and compete and have an opportunity to get this game in and hopefully get a win. It doesn't matter where it happens. We prefer to be in the comforts of our own field. At this point, the mindset shifted to: We just want to get this game in."

Perhaps even more encouragingly, the Eagles' goal came at a point when all of the Terps' starting backline had already departed because of the team's comfortable lead. Substitutions were plentiful, as 11 Terps came off the bench to see time on the field.

"We kind of made a commitment coming into this game that we were going to our bench early, and our team is really deep," Pensky said.

As the Terps now look to start a new scoreless streak, Wagner afterward kept the significance of this streak in perspective and the team's greater goal in mind.

"We're pretty focused on ourselves right now," she said. "Just keep winning, just keep developing as a team, just keep getting better every single game. So this was just another game where we could add a win to our record."

dgallen@umdbk.com