Making good on promise, Forbess returns as starter for men's soccer

After notching two assists in a 2-0 win at Virginia Tech on Sept. 24, the typically quiet Kaoru Forbess made his intentions loud and clear.

"I definitely want to get my starting spot back," he said.

And he got it. The senior Terrapins men's soccer midfielder, who lost his starting job after suffering an ankle injury during a 4-0 rout of Stanford on Sept. 2, was back in the team's starting 11 for its 3-1 win against No. 12 Charlotte on Tuesday.

The promotion followed a strong stretch of play for Forbess, who, after ceding his spot to redshirt freshman Jeremy Raley, added to his assists total and climbed to fourth in the ACC in the category.

"Kaoru played very well in the Virginia Tech match," Cirovski said Tuesday. "His performance in that match warranted a start against Charlotte."

Forbess had one shot against the 49ers, while Raley finished with an assist.

TORRID TOWNSEND

When forward Casey Townsend netted his 10th goal of the season Tuesday, he inched closer to another place in the Terps' record books.

His first-half score marked the senior forward's 36th career goal, making him the seventh-leading scorer in program history. He's just three scores shy of tying Rocco Morelli, who starred for the Terps in the late 1960s, and breaking into the top five.

Outside of cementing his name among the Terps' all-time greats, Townsend has also made a strong case for this year's Hermann Trophy, the annual award given to the top male and female college soccer players in the country.

Powering the nation's third-highest scoring offense, he is tied with Duke forward Andrew Wenger for the second-most goals in Division I.

"He's doing exactly what I said he was going to do," Cirovski said. "He's that good, and I expect that from him. I'm really happy for him and really proud of him."

FOR THE RECORD BOOKS

While Townsend continues to cement his legacy, his Terps team is quickly putting together one of the greatest seasons in program history.

After beating the 49ers on Tuesday, the Terps are off to their best start since 1968. That squad, which was led by the aforementioned Morelli, won 14 straight games before ultimately capturing the program's first-ever national championship.

But Cirovski, who's never been one for comparisons, said he's not willing to focus on such feats with eight games still remaining in the regular season.

"I have no thoughts on that," he said. "I'm getting the guys recovered for a big game on Friday [against No. 2 Creighton]. I didn't even know that."

letourneau@umdbk.com