BALTIMORE, Maryland November 25, 2013 - It does seem like every November Maryland's elite soccer side runs into one large physical team after another in the NCAA Tournament. So it was, again, on a very cold and windy Sunday night in College Park, when a below-the-radar Providence team, came into College Park with a solid and, through the 86th minute, battled the Terps at every turn. In that 86th minute, with the Terps ahead, 2-1, big Jake Pace counterattacked a Providence Side pushed up as far as a team can go, and beat the plucky Friar Keeper, Keasel Broome, on a low bullet from the top of the 18. Until Pace's score, Providence had gone head-to-head with the Terps, ranked third in two polls and fourth in another. Michael Sauers scored the only goal of the first half in the 19th minute, though the Terps were outshot by Providence 6-5. In the second half Maryland did seem to get a better grip on the game and in the end did outshoot Providence, 15-12, but Providence kept pushing right back. Neither side seemed able to mount sustained possessions. In the 69th minute the Friars tied the score. Junior Fabio Machado, a Brazil native, sent a wonderful feed right at the goal, and fellow Junior, Phil Towler, an Englishman, finished with a mere flick of his foot, misdirecting the shot past Maryland's dependable Freshman Keeper, Nick Steffan. But the tie hardly lasted a wink and a nod, because almost at once Patrick Mullins had a ball in the Friar box and their defense panicked. Mullins, marked by a closing double team, deftly kicked the ball backwards with his heel to a charging Tsubasa Endoh. Endoh might have shot immediately, but he sensed he could push through two off-balance Friar defensive players. He did get the ball through, but as he followed he was tripped. A penalty kick ensued which Mullins made easily. Broome guessed that Mullins would shoot to his right and he dove that way as Mullins fired. But as Broome dove to his left, Mullins shot to his right. It was, as it turned out, the winning score. But it left Maryland ahead by just one goal. Providence turned up the heat, but to do that against a good team like Maryland, you leave your defense exposed. Pace was almost cherry-picking when he took a clearing kick, turned and kicked toward the goal from near midfield. Challenged on a breakaway, Broome left the line. Pace, to his credit, didn't wait to get too close. Instead he fired low from the top of the 18. Broome had no chance. Maryland plays its third-round match against the Anteaters of UC Irvine next Sunday at 5 pm in College Park. The Anteaters advanced by winning a defensive thriller over North Carolina in California. With only two seconds left, Christopher Santana took a pass from Michael Sperber and beat Brendan Moore, the Tar Heel Keeper, with a hard shot that went just inside the left post. UC Irvine will come to College Park with a 15-4-5 record. Maryland is now 14-3-5. In other games, UMBC lost a heartbreaking match with Connecticut, on penalty kicks. The two teams each scored two second half goals, after a scoreless first half and before two scoreless overtime periods. In the penalty kick phase, where the teams shoot alternately, the Retrievers moved ahead after each side had shot twice by a 2-1 count. In the end, the Huskies prevailed in the shootout, 4-2. Connecticut will now play top seeded UCLA in Los Angeles next Sunday at 9 pm eastern time. The Bruins whacked Elon, 4-1. The Phoenix had beaten Clemson in penalty kicks Thursday night on the East Coast, then flew to LA for Sunday's showdown. In other games, Marquette scored a golden goal in the final minute of the first overtime to stun powerful Akron, 1-0. The Warriors will take on Virginia, which had little trouble beating St. John's, 2-0. The game will take place Sunday at 1 pm at Klockner Stadium in Charlottesville. Also on Sunday, determined Coastal Carolina made a first half goal standup for a 1-0 win over 13th-seeded Charlotte, and California got two goals from Alec Sundly to beat back tired but plucky Bradley, 3-1. The Braves were down, 2-0 at the half, but Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year Wojciech Wojcik scored two minutes into the second half to bring Bradley within one goal. That score stood for the next ten minutes of play before Sundly scored his second goal of the game to seal the decision. The Chanticleers and Bears play Sunday in Berkley, California. Meanwhile in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Navy and Wake Forest traded first half goals before Ricky Greensfelder found the back of the net for the Deacons in the 54th minute to send Wake Forest into the third round against ACC-rival Notre Dame. The Deacons outshot the Midshipmen, 18-8. The Irish slugged Wisconsin, 4-0 to advance. The game will be played in South Bend, as the Irish are seeded third. In Washington, D.C., Georgetown eased past Old Dominion, 3-0. The Hoyas will entertain Michigan State on Sunday after the Spartans edged Louisville, 1-0. The match's only score came seven minutes into the second overtime, when State's Tim Kreutz scored on assists from Kevin Cope and Adam Montague. Penn State was the only side to travel across the country and still win. The Lions' Connor Maloney scored the games only goal in Penn State's 1-0 over UC Santa Barbara. Jordan Tyler assisted on Maloney's score. The Lions now will pretty much have to do the whole traveling thing again, as they fly to Albuquerque to face New Mexico. The Lobos advanced by beating George Mason, 1-0, on James Rogers goal with less than eight minutes left. New Mexico outshot the Patriots, 19-4. The other round of 16 game will pit two Pac-12 sides. Stanford whipped CSU Northridge, 1-0 to set up a match with No. 2 seed Washington. The Huskies survived a frantic comeback by upset-minded Seattle, finally stopping the Redhawks, 4-2. Washington seemed to have the game well in hand when they built up a 4-0 advantage on scores by Darwin Jones in the 28th minute, Josh Heard in the 48th minute, Christian Roldan in the 57th minute and Mason Robertson in the 66th minute. But was the clocked ticked into the 72nd minute the lid seemed to come off the Washington net. In the space of 60 seconds Chase Hanson and Michael Roberts both scored for Seattle to cut the Husky advantage exactly in half. Washington then regrouped, especially its keeper, and it was a good thing. Within the next five minutes Seattle put shots on goal twice, but Husky keeper Herman Ryan stopped both. The game next Sunday will in Seattle. When the two schools met in early October, the Huskies prevailed, 3-1.
In the United States' Virgin Islands, at the NCAA-sanctioned Paradise Jam Tournament, Maryland ran off three impressive wins in four days to win the championship. Dez Wells of Maryland was named the Tournament MVP and Evan Smotrycz was named to the All-Tournament team. Maryland routed Marist in the first round last Friday, pulled away from a good Northern Iowa team on Sunday, then warded off a strong Providence rally to hand the Friars their first loss in the title game. Dez Wells showed his enviable talent and commanding presence in the title game, driving to the basket for critical buckets even as Providence rallied to within one point after trailing early in the second half by 19. Smotrycz had looked uncomfortable at times in early games, but that all ended in St. Thomas, the capital of the Islands. Scoring inside and out, rebounding, and upping his defensive presence, he showed why his transfer to Maryland from Michigan was a tremendous asset for the Terps. Nick Faust is also a 20 point threat in every game and his defense is about as it gets. The fourth muskateer, so to speak, is Jake Layman, a 6'9" guard forward, who is a deadly outside shooter who this year has been displaying a new-found inside, drive to the bucket game he did not display last season. As Maryland proved in its opener, a one-point loss to Connecticut - after trailing by double digits - it can play and probably beat anybody. The trick is to do it every night. You find out about kids on a team like this.
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