Strack's Take: No Longer a Hairy Situation
10/26/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Receiving the ball from teammate Mikey Ambrose, George Campbell's back faced the net. He turned, gained some separation from the defender and fired from long range toward the near post past the diving keeper for Maryland's first goal.
The freshman ran over to his teammates who congratulated him on his first collegiate score, rubbing his beard that had gone unshaven for two months. After all, Maryland soccer tradition prevents each freshman from shaving until the first-years net eight goals, or the team wins eight games.
The 58th-minute score opened the floodgates en route to reaching the latter mark as the Terps (8-5-2) cruised to a 3-1 win over Santa Clara Saturday night to notch their fifth straight victory.
“I'm actually going to go back to the locker room and shave it as soon as I get back there,” said Campbell. “I was thinking about bringing the razor to the field.”
Maryland controlled play throughout, ending up with a 12-5 shooting edge, but only zeros would light up the scoreboard during first-half action.
In the 38th minute, Jereme Raley let an arching cross fly from the right sideline, finding the head of Alex Shinsky just yards in front of the goalkeeper. But the shot was high as the Terps came up empty in their best chance of the period.
The Crew-heavy crowd could finally let loose barbaric excitement early in the second half as Campbell worked his magic.
“It was definitely relieving, definitely a good feeling,” said Campbell. “Definitely takes a little stress off it because I had been harping on getting one for so long and I finally did, so hopefully I can ease up a little bit and not feel so tense while I'm playing.”
Fourteen minutes later, Tsubasa Endoh's corner was touched through the box by David Kabelik, squirting through to Raley as his sliding finish extended the Terps' lead.
Minutes after, Campbell evaded a defender and was taken down about five yards outside the top of the box. Mael Corboz took the free kick, lifting it over a five-man wall, connecting with the upper-right mesh for his team-leading sixth goal of the season.
“Mael's was a thing of beauty on the free kick, something that I've been bugging him about all year,” chuckled head coach Sasho Cirovski
Corboz' insurance proved important as Santa Clara's Haru Kent put his team on the board in the 83rd minute with a slow roller that froze up Maryland keeper Zack Steffen. The goal was one of just two shots on goal for the Broncos (5-6-3).
Though Maryland dominated the play to the naked eye, they put only five shots on goal. Cirovski noticed the menacing attack was not there in the first stanza and said this was a “grind-it-out” victory.
“This was one of those tough games that you've got to find a way to win when you were not at your best,” said the sideline general, “but I thought in the second half we came out with a lot of quality.”
The Terps look to extend their win streak to six against Hartwick Tuesday night, garnering a head of steam for two final Big Ten regular-season tilts. The confidence hasn't been higher after a tough opening month.
“You can't win a championship in September so we finally figured it out now and we're rolling,” said Campbell. “Come NCAA, come the Big Ten tournament, I think that we have that win streak going and we have that confidence we need so I think it's definitely helping us and it's going to help us in the future.”
Ben Strack, a senior journalism major at the University of Maryland, is a contributing writer to umterps.com
