Men's soccer draws to stay ahead

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – It's difficult to mistake Sasho Cirovski for anything but a winner.

Since taking over a struggling Terrapins men's soccer program in 1993, the former NSCAA National Coach of the Year has guided the Terps to 16 NCAA Tournament appearances, four ACC Championships and two national championships.

So when a hoarse Cirovski stood on Fetzer Field and expressed his satisfaction with an exhausting 1-1 tie against No. 2 North Carolina on Friday night, it was obvious some extenuating factors were at play.

"I'm normally not happy with ties," he said. "But we'll take one tonight."

The Terps' challenges began to arise long before the game even started. Midfielder Sunny Jane was shown a red card and ejected in the second half of a win over Duke on Oct. 14, making him ineligible against the Tar Heels.

Forced to play without their assists leader, the No. 3 Terps (13-1-2, 4-1-1 ACC) struggled to find open looks throughout the first half. They were unable to maintain any sort of offensive rhythm, and entered halftime without a shot on goal for the first time this season.

"We weren't playing our style," midfielder John Stertzer said. "Everything was long. You know, we weren't really keeping the ball very well. And against a good team, they're going to defend that."

The Terps opened the second half with a newfound urgency, freeing themselves for multiple shot attempts in the period's opening minutes until one of those bids finally found the back of the net. In the 51st minute, Stertzer took a throw-in from midfielder Kaoru Forbess just inside the penalty box and placed a shot past North Carolina goalkeeper Scott Goodwin for a 1-0 lead.

Soon after Stertzer's 12th goal of the season, the pace turned frantic. The Terps continued to attack the net but couldn't capitalize on a handful of open looks in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

The Tar Heels (11-2-2, 3-1-2 ACC), meanwhile, nearly evened the score in the 58th minute when forward Ben Speas' 17-yard attempt clanked off the crossbar and landed in the hands of goalkeeper Will Swaim.

Just three minutes later, defender London Woodberry was called for a handball inside the box. Feeling that the ball had deflected off his shoulder, Woodberry exchanged some heated words with the referee, prompting a red card and an ejection from the game.

"When that whole thing happened, I was like, ‘Oh, crap,'" Swaim said. "But you've just got to roll with the punches."

And they kept coming.

North Carolina midfielder Enzo Martinez converted the ensuing penalty kick, and Maryland defender Alex Lee went down with a leg injury just a minute later.

Forced to improvise, Cirovski moved midfielder Helge Leikvang into a center-back position and called upon freshman defender Kyle Roach for just the fifth time this season.

"It's tough when you lose your two starting center backs," defender Taylor Kemp said. "But it shows we have the quality to put people in different places."

With Roach and Leikvang filling in the gaps on the backline, Swaim showed why he's considered one of the ACC's top goalkeepers this season. The redshirt senior tallied a season-high seven saves, keeping the Tar Heels to score on just one of their 23 attempts.

To be sure, Swaim had to make some risky decisions. The Ellicott City native ventured from his 6-yard box several times in the game's final 40 minutes, cutting off Tar Heels attackers before they could get off shot attempts.

"During the heat of the moment, there's definitely some risk-reward going on," Swaim said. "But once you get into the flow of the game, and you're in game form, you realize the decisions you have to make are maybe aggressive, but you've got to do it for the team."