March 11, 2012

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland men's soccer team spilt a pair of exhibition matches this weekend, defeating VCU 2-1 and falling to the El Salvador U-23 squad 3-1.

The Terps topped VCU Friday in Richmond, courtesy of a pair of second-half goals. After going down 1-0 on an early Ram penalty kick, Patrick Mullins knotted the score before Jake Pace scored the game-winner late in the match. The game served as the highlight college match at the prestigious Jefferson Cup youth tournament.

"Against VCU, we got off to a slow start, but then found the resolve to put together a very good performance and displayed some good skill and character to get the result," head coach Sasho Cirovski said. "This was a very good opening spring weekend for our 2012 team. We really challenged ourselves by traveling to Richmond on Friday evening to take on an excellent VCU team knowing that we had a great event planned for Sunday."

Maryland then fell to a tough El Salvador squad on Sunday in an international friendly in front of a standing room only crowd of nearly 5,000 at the Maryland Soccerplex in Germantown.

John Stertzer silenced the pro-ES crowd with a goal in the eighth minute off a rebound from an initial Mullins strike to go up 1-0. El Salvador answered 12 minutes later on a world class free kick from 30 yards.

After ES took the lead on a rebound goal in the 35th minute, Stertzer nearly had his second goal of the match when his penalty kick attempt was saved in the 40th minute. ES notched its final goal on a PK in the second half for a 3-1 final.

"The match against the El Salvador Olympic team was a real treat, a very entertaining match," Cirovski said. "With very little rest and playing such a quality team in its apex of preparation for the CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers, the challenge was daunting. However, our guys had some very good moments and played some very good soccer. There is no question that both these games will be very valuable as we continue to build the foundation of our team for next fall."

The Terps return to action with a match against the Richmond Kickers March 31 at City Stadium in Richmond.