Terps hold on for first round victory

For so long, an ankle had been the Achilles heel of the Terrapin men's soccer team.

With the bevy of Terp offensive stars from last year's National Championship team no longer at coach Sasho Cirovski's disposal, the onus of scoring — and winning games — had fallen largely on forward Casey Townsend.

With a year under his belt, he did it early in the season, and the Terps won often. Hampered by a nagging left ankle injury, he couldn't do it in the middle of the season, and accordingly, the Terps struggled.

On Thursday, with the Terps (13-5-2) looking to extend their postseason, a revitalized Townsend led the Terps to a 2-1 win over Loyola (Md.) in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Terps will play Penn State Sunday afternoon.

"We haven't had that kind of threat for a while," Cirovski said, noting that injuries had prevented Townsend from having three straight days of practice at any point this season. "We've been kind of surviving. I like the fact that we're getting a little bit of a good rhythm and a good feel and a good momentum going forward, and I'm excited to see what we can do on Sunday."

After opening the Terps' title march through the NCAA tournament last year with a goal, Townsend found a way to do it again last night.

In the 34th minute, Townsend's neat flick-on just outside the box to midfielder Kaoru Forbess sprung forward Jason Herrick's sprint to goal. Forbess' quick pass bypassed Herrick but made its way to a wide open Townsend, who buried it past Loyola goalkeeper Kyle Wittman.

"We scored a lot of goals like that last year," Cirovski said. "[Herrick and Townsend] have had three practices together since preseason. Now that they've got a good 90 minutes in, I'm excited to see what they can produce on Sunday. The whole team has a lot of confidence right now."

Even the usually poised Drew Yates took his confidence to a new level. After a poor clear of a Terp cross in the 36th minute, Yates collected the ball near the penalty spot before spinning and dribbling his way through the Loyola defense. When the moves finally stopped, Yates placed a right-footed strike into the net for a 2-0 lead.

Cirovski said afterward that the first goal of the second half would sway the momentum one way or the other. Four minutes in, the Greyounds (11-8-3) got both.

In the 49th minute, Loyola midfielder Danny Ankrah found forward Phil Bannister six yards from goal with a picture-perfect cross from the left flank. Bannister took one step before easily depositing the ball past a helpless Zac MacMath to cut the deficit in half.

Minutes later, Ankrah nearly got his second helper when he drove a whizzing cross into a congested box that midfielder Eddie Dines touched just high of goal. 

"We backed off a little in the second half because we got comfortable with the lead, which we can't do," Yates said.

Added Cirovski: "I thought our backline bent a little bit, but it didn't break."

The nonstop heckling from the Terp student section made for a testy intrastate affair, but the Greyhounds had a chance to muzzle the Terp fans' taunts early on. Bannister slipped behind the Terp backline on a through ball in the 10th minute, but MacMath stonewalled the breakaway opportunity from six yards out. 

The stop was MacMath's lone save Thursday, and Loyola failed to threaten the goal at all in the game's closing moments.

"Our philosophy is to attack," Cirovski said.

Barring an upset in later rounds, Thursday's match likely marked the last of the season in College Park. Sunday, the Terps will venture into enemy territory for an NCAA tournament game for the first time since 1998, when they played at American in the second round. This time, it will be No. 7 seed and Big 10 runner-up Penn State (12-7-2).

The Nittany Lions are 19-17 against the Terps all-time — one of the few programs to boast such a winning record — but fell in their only postseason matchup, a 2-0 loss in 1995.

shaffer@umdbk.com