Maryland Men's Soccer Meets Loyola, No. 7 Duke This Week
9/19/2000 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 19, 2000
College Park, Md. - The Terps men's soccer team embarks on a key regional match-up this week when it takes the short trip to Baltimore to meet Loyola. Ranked eighth in the South Atlantic Region this week, the Terps need a win to keep their NCAA hopes moving in the right direction after dropping a 2-0 loss to UMBC at Ludwig Field last week.
The Maryland/Loyola Series
The Terps bring a five-game winning streak against Loyola into the match-up on Wednesday, including a 4-0 win last year. The last time Maryland lost to the Greyhounds was in 1992, during the last year of head coach Alden Shattuck's tenure. Maryland and Loyola alsop layed to a scoreless tie in 1993, Sasho Cirovski's first year as the Terps' head coach. Cirovski has never lost to the Greyhounds in his career as Maryland's head coach.
Senior Nick Purdom (Orange, Calif.) is the only healthy Terrapin on the current roster to score against Loyola last season. Purdom had an assist on the Terps last goal of the day, which was netted by Siba Mohammed (Tamale, Ghana). Kevin Schmidt (Westfield, N.J.) was in goal for the Terps last season against Loyola, steppping in for the injured Christian Lewis (Ellicott City, Md.). He made two saves and allowed no goals in 90 minutes of play.
Head Coach Sasho Cirovski
Entering his eighth year at Maryland, head coach Sasho Cirovski has compiled a 93-53-14 (.625) record. A 1988 graduate of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Cirovski owns a 119-65-14 (.646) through his first nine years of head coaching. Cirovski sits just seven wins away from the 100-win plateau at Maryland. Cirovski has 14 or more wins in each of his last six seasons.
Thompson and Vitagliano On the Scoring Drive
Freshmen Abe Thompson (Fairfax Station, Va.) and Bryan Vitagliano (Scotsdale, Ariz.) lead the Terps' offensive efforts right now. Both have two goals for the season through Maryland's first six games. Thompson scored one against South Florida on Sept. 3 and added two more in Maryland's 5-0 defeat of NC State on Sept. 17. Vitagliano also scored against NC State, netted one against Indiana on Sept. 8, and notched his first career goal when Maryland met Jacksonville at the Virginia Classic on Sept. 1.
Freshman Grades Are Coming In
With the injuries to key performers like Scott Buete (Bowie, Md.), A.J. Herrera (Albuquerque, N.M.), Sumed Ibrahim (Tamale, Ghana) and Siba Mohammed (Tamale, Ghana), the Terps have had to turn elsewhere to produce the scoring they need to win games. That means that Maryland's freshman have had to come of age that much faster. Four out of eight Terrapins who have scored goals this season are freshman (Clarence Goodson, Abe Thompson, Seth Stammler and Bryan Vitagliano)- that's 50 percent. Of the 13 goals scored for the Terps this season, nine have been converted by players who haven't even received their first-quarter grades yet. Nine of 13 gives the freshman almost 70 percent of the Terrapins' goal-scoring punch. Don't think the upperclassmen are just standing around watching them, though. Thirteen of Maryland's 17 assists have been dealt by upperclassmen. Co-captains Nick Downing and Beckett Hollenbach lead the way in that category with three and four assists, respectively.
UM's High-Powered Schedule
While the Terps travel to Loyola on Wednesday to look for their first regional win, the toughest is yet to come. No. 16 Duke comes to town on Sunday for an ACC showdown the whole conference will have its eye on. After that, the Terrapins will have to defend their home turf again against American on Sept. 27 and travel to Wake Forest on Sept. 30. Other ranked teams on Maryland's schedule include No. 13 North Carolina at Ludwig Field on Oct. 7, and No. 20 Virginia Commonwealth and No. 8 Virginia, both on the road.
