Eticha wins second B1G Offensive Player of the Week Crognale captures first defensive award

If you take out your season long telescope and look back to the very first week of the 2014 men's soccer season, you will see that the Maryland Terrapins' Mikias Eticha won the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. Since then, the senior from Falls Church has spent much of his time on the sidelines with an injury. Since his return to the lineup against VCU, the Terps are undefeated. Perhaps a coincidence. Perhaps not.

Lessons from Eticha

Though he shares the award with Michigan State's Jason Stacy, Eticha had a very productive week to capture his second Offensive Player of the Week Award. He started the week by scoring both goals in Maryland's 2-0 win over the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. He followed that up with an assist on what proved to be the game winner in the Terps' 2-1 win at Indiana Sunday. The assist on Alex Crognale's header was a thing of beauty:

Eticha now has three goals and two assists on the year. His eight points are second on the team just a bit behind Mael Corboz's thirteen.

Speaking of Crognale

For the second consecutive week, the B1G also named a Terp as the defensive Player of the Week. Last week, Zack Steffen picked up the award for his back to back shutouts of VCU and Penn State. This week, it was Corgnale, the sophomore from Gehanna, OH.

Crognale picked up his first career assist on David Kabelik's game tying goal in the Terps early season match at Michigan. His header at Indiana (Watch it again because the goal is also a thing of beauty. Go ahead, I'll wait.) was his first career goal. Certainly of equal importance, Crognale has been nearly impeccable in his center back position for a Terrapins defense that has recorded five shutouts in the last eight games.

The Terps will host Santa Clara on Saturday, October 25th. The game kicks off a three match home stand for Maryland before they will close the regular season at Rutgers.