Maryland men beat Wake Forest

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The No. 3 Maryland men’s soccer team picked up its first win against Wake Forest since 2006, downing the Demon Deacons, 3-1, on Saturday night.

Paul Torres, Casey Townsend and Matt Kassel accounted for Maryland’s (11-2-1, 5-1-1 ACC) scoring on the night. The Terps, winners of seven straight, outshot Wake (5-7-2, 3-2-2 ACC) an astounding 22-7 in the match and attempted a season-high 13 corner kicks, including eight in the first half.

Torres provided the Terps with their first goal in the 30th minute.  A groundball shot from Patrick Mullins was saved by Demon Deacon keeper Akira Fitzgerald but the rebound bounced to Jason Herrick, who also had his strike saved.  A streaking Torres up the middle then finished the drive with a bullet to the right corner for a 1-0 lead.

At 62:58, Townsend tallied his second goal of the week off a serve from a pressed-up Taylor Kemp.  Townsend shook a pair of Wake defenders and powered the ball past Fitzgerald for a Terrapin two-goal cushion.

A Wake Forest score in the 68th minute from Danny Wenzel was nearly cleared out before inching past the goal line moving the score to 2-1.

Townsend pressured an attempted clear by the Wake backline and caused a deflection that ricocheted to Herrick who was taken down in the box in the 72nd minute.  Kassel missed his first penalty kick of the year but came back with a vengeance in the 83rd minute with a 30-yard blast off a free kick that lifted out of reach for Fitzgerald.

Maryland is now 11-0 when scoring the first goal of the game this season. With the win, the Terps even the all-time series with Wake, 15-15-4.

“It was a great win. Defensively we were outstanding and we were very connected,” head coach Sasho Cirovski said.  “We had good communication all over the field.

“That’s a young but very talented Wake Forest team.  To their credit, they competed throughout the game.  I was really proud of our whole team and thought defensively it was one of our best performances of the season.  This is a very good win and a step forward.”

Maryland has the midweek off before traveling to No. 8 Virginia to cap the ACC regular season Friday.