BALTIMORE, Maryland November 5, 2014 - If there is another Division I Soccer Team that is able to accomplish what the University of Maryland Men's Soccer Team has just accomplished, I am not aware of them. It seems likely that they do not exist. The Terps and their genius of a coach, Sascho Cirovski, stumbled out of the gate in August and before they could right their ship in early October, their record stood at 3 wins, 5 losses, and 2 ties. In the Big Ten, they were 1 win, 2 losses and 2 ties. Ranked No. 2 at the start of the season and coming off of a season that saw them, for all intents and purposes, win the national championship (We will not, again, rehash the NCAA Championship Game, in which a game official missed a significant part of the game and literally stole the game from Maryland) the Terps looked entirely human for the first six weeks of the season, unable, as it was, to adjust adequately to the graduation of Patrick Mullins, the two-time National Player of the Year. And then they did, thanks to Cirovski's leadership. And now they have won 8 straight games, more consecutive wins than any other team in the nation at the current time. Tonight, they received scores from Junior Mael Corboz, Freshman George Campbell and David Kabelik and beat Rutgers, 3-2, on the Scarlet Knights' home field in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Maryland wins the Big Ten regular season title on the last day of the season. They entered the day two points behind Penn State. The Nittany Lions had 15 points and were playing a non-conference opponent, Akron, in University Park after concluding their Big Ten Regular Season Schedule Sunday by losing at Northwestern. The Wildcats, winners of the last two Big Ten Regular Season Titles, have also surged at season's end and had a chance, themselves, to grab the conference title if Maryland either lost or tied Rutgers and if they beat Wisconsin tonight in Evanston. With just over 12 minutes left, the Wildcats led the Badgers, 2-0, Assuming that score holds, Maryland win win the Big Ten with 16 points and Northwestern and Penn State will finish tied for second with 15 points each. The Wildcats should get the number two seed by virtue of their victory over the Nittany Lions in double overtime last Sunday. The Wildcats' Mike Rogers scored the winning goal in that game with less than one minute left in the second and final overtime.
Maryland will open play in the Big Ten Tournament Sunday at College Park against the winner of a Saturday game between Rutgers and Wisconsin. That game will also be played in College Park according to the Big Ten Schedule.
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