Returning to the team, then returning to form

Casey Townsend almost wasn't a member of the Terrapins men's soccer team this season.

After a nine-goal season capped with first-team All-ACC honors last year, the then-junior forward was attracting considerable interest from MLS and overseas. He had his coach's blessing. Even his teammates couldn't have blamed him for darting.

But after weeks of deliberation at his family's Traverse City, Mich., home last winter break, Townsend decided to return to College Park. He had business to finish.

"I needed to see if I could get that second national title," Townsend said last month.

On Wednesday, the MAC Hermann Trophy candidate kept that hope alive. Townsend notched his third career hat trick as the No. 5 seed Terps routed West Virginia, 4-0, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

He netted goals in the 20th, 60th and 76th minutes to set up the Terps' matchup Sunday against No. 12 seed Louisville at Ludwig Field.

"I'm really proud of Casey," coach Sasho Cirovski said moments after securing his 10th straight appearance in the Sweet 16. "I thought his leadership was outstanding. He won almost everything in the air, and for him to score three goals here, he really played like a senior leader."

That scoring outburst moved Townsend into fourth place on the program's all-time scoring list with 42 goals. It also helped add to his laundry list of national distinctions — he was named CollegeSoccerNews.com and TopDrawerSoccer.com's national player of the week yesterday.

But individual honors aren't Townsend's focus.

"This is why I came back," he said. "I know we lost in the ACC Tournament, but this is the big one. This is the main reason I came back. I just hope we can make a good run at it, and I think we will."

Such confidence may have seemed misplaced just hours earlier. Unbeaten after 12 games in what was their best start in 43 years, the Terps entered the NCAA Tournament on a four-game winless streak. They'd managed just one goal in each of those matches after 38 in their first 15 outings.

And Townsend wasn't immune to the offensive drought. After netting 12 goals through his first 12 games, he didn't score for more than a month. That rut finally ended when Townsend tallied the Terps' lone goal in a 2-1 ACC Tournament quarterfinals loss to Boston College on Nov. 8.

"We lost that game and you've got to get over it," Townsend said. "You've got to move on to the next game. And we don't remember. I mean, we remember obviously, but it's not a big deal to us that we lost to Boston College."

How could it be? After routing a Mountaineers team that handed then-No. 1 Connecticut its first loss of the season last month, a Terps squad that appeared headed for an early postseason exit days ago now seems poised to chase its second national championship in four years.

"If we have guys accepting responsibility like this," defender Taylor Kemp said, "I don't think there's a limit on what we can do this postseason."

So as the Terps prepare to host the Cardinals this Thanksgiving weekend, Cirovski's quite thankful his star forward is back in the fold.

"People still rave about the work [Casey] put in the national championship game in 2008," Cirovski said. "You see what kind of inspiration he is. He's fantastic."

letourneau@umdbk.com