COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The warm evening breeze was more indicative of late summer than mid-autumn. Warmer still, the Terrapins extended their win streak to six games, handling Hartick Tuesday night, 5-2.
The lull of the first 15 minutes was quickly forgotten with first half strikes from Mael Corboz and David Kabelik that jumpstarted a clearly more potent Terps offense.
With a pretty feed from Mikias Eticha, Corboz received the ball with steam, invading the left side of the box. He stutter-stepped once…twice…then unleashed a point-blank, top-shelf blast. The junior transfer's 30th-minute score was his seventh goal of the season, which leads the team. But having the most goals doesn't make him any more lethal than the squad's other options.
“We don't have a go-to scorer, we have a lot of weapons that are starting to find their game,” head coach Sasho Cirovski said matter-of-factly. “We have a bunch of different guys that can score and I think right now it's becoming a strength of our team.”
Maryland (9-5-2) would extend the lead five minutes later when Jereme Raley found Kabelik at the top of the box, his back to the goal. The Hungarian junior handled the defender on his hip with poise, quickly turning to his left and putting one past the Hawks' lunging goalkeeper from 17 yards out.
“It felt really good,” said Kabelik whose last goal came in the final minute to salvage a tie in Ann Arbor. “Finally I can score. It's been a long time since [Michigan].”
The second half spelled chances galore for the Terps, continuing pressure to upgrade the contest to blowout status…temporarily at least. In the 67th minute, freshman Jake Areman led Tsubasa Endoh with a pass as the junior beat his man and converted an easy 12-yard finish.
But Hartwick (3-9-4) would not go quietly. In the 73rd minute, Chris Walter booted a long ball up the field to freshman Marc Berry who beat a wandering Zack Steffen to the ball. The kick took little effort as the sphere got behind Maryland's preseason All-American net protector and rolled 20 yards across the stripe. Ten minutes later Hartwick would cut the lead to one with a 20-yard free kick.
“I thought we had some lapses tonight and we'll learn from that,” said head coach Sasho Cirovski. “We've already talked about filing that game away and look at many of the positives that did happen today. We scored some great goals, had some good movement.”
The Terps would end the madness when Kabelik put home his second of the game in the 87th minute to seal the harder-than-anticipated victory. Metzger added a penalty kick goal in the final 15 seconds, adding insult to injury to the small New York private school.
Despite the short-lived Hawks' rally, Hartwick notched just four shots, the two on net finding the back of it. The Terrapins had 19 shots, nine on goal. The lopsided differential in this category has become a trend as Maryland has outshot opponents 209-116 this season.
Looking to carry a winning streak into the university's inaugural Big Ten tournament, the Terps first look to Ohio State on Saturday for their final home game of the season before next week's regular-season finale at Rutgers.
Ben Strack, a senior journalism major at the University of Maryland, is a contributing writer to umterps.com.
