Maryland men's soccer loses to Northwestern 2-1 in overtime

Maryland men's soccer was unable to avenge last season's loss to Northwestern in a 2-1 overtime loss on a stormy Friday afternoon.

Northwestern's Getenet Tuji scored a breakaway goal in the 99th minute on an assist from Joey Calistri to give the Wildcats their second overtime victory over Maryland in a row after beating the Terps 3-2 in double overtime last season.

Although Maryland crushed Northwestern in time-of-possession the entire game, Northwestern took advantage of the chances it did have, converting on two of its four shots.

"In a million years, we should never lose that game," Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski said. "We did everything right but put the ball in the back of the net."

Calistri, a senior, chased down a ball sent deep into Maryland territory by midfielder Jeffrey Hopson and took the ball straight to the near post, drawing out Maryland goalkeeper Cody Niedermeier before dishing it to the middle of the box to Tuji, who easily knocked the ball in for the game-ending goal.

"It was an easily managable situation, and we had probably three or four guys who didn't do their job, and they had one guy who did his job," Cirovski said.

Calistri had the assist on the game-winning goal in last year's game, too.

"Joey Calistri got us again," Cirovski said. "We've seen the story before, and we don't like it."

The loss moves the Terps to 4-3-3 on the season (1-1-2 in Big Ten play), and was the team's first overtime loss of the year. Northwestern's game-tying goal came after Maryland appeared to have the game in hand when freshman midfielder Jorge Calix scored in the 79th minute to put the Terps on top 1-0.

After Tsubasa Endoh's shot from the top of the box was deflected, Northwestern goalkeeper Zak Allen mishandled the ball and Calix steadied it and quickly hit it into the unmanned goal for the first score of his career.

While freshman forwards Sebastian Elney and Eryk Williamson have received much of the attention and playing time out of the 13 newcomers to the program, Cirovski has been steadily increasing Calix's playing time over the past few weeks, and it paid off in the second half.

Just as it seemed like Maryland was going to win its second game in a row and avenge last season's loss, a Northwestern freshman scored his first goal of his career. After a Maryland foul in the 83rd minute, the Wildcats had a free kick from about 30 yards out. Freshman Camden Buescher simulated as if he was going to take the kick, then snuck past the Maryland defense and put a pass from Sam Forsgren past Niedermeier to tie the game.

In the first half, The Wildcats rarely held the ball for long. Northwestern really only made two runs into Maryland's side of the field, and neither ended in a shot. Maryland goalkeeper Cody Niedermeier didn't have to make a save, and spent most of his time about halfway between the goal and midfield. The Terrapins had nine shots and seven corners in the half, while Northwestern didn't even attempt one of either.

Chris Odoi-Atsem and Mael Corboz were major players for the Terps in the first half, generating most of the team's offense. Odoi-Atsem made several runs down the right side before crossing several balls into the box, but no Maryland player could finish them.

"It was a combination of their numbers behind the ball and our inability to make that great shot, that final connection," Cirovski said. "We certainly had enough good looks and good connections."

The second half started out as more of the same, with almost all of the action coming on Northwestern's side of the field until the Wildcats started making a few runs on offense, cumulating in Buescher's goal. Maryland still led in shots by an outrageous 24-to-4 margin, but only led in shots on goal 4-to-3.

The announced attendance for the game was 1,563. However, significantly less fans that were actually in the stands for most of the game, which was moved up to 2 p.m. from its original start time of 7:30 due to Hurrican Joaquin. There were about 20 members of The Crew who stayed throughout the game to heckle Allen, but the stands on both sides and behind both nets were sparsely populated.

"I was really grateful for the people who did show up today," Cirovski said. "Kudos to the great support we had in miserable conditions and time change and all of those things."

After losing to Northwestern last season, the Terps reeled off eight straight victories to end the season. Obviously, Cirovski is hoping for a similar result from this loss.

"We responded well from this loss last year and that's our goal again this year," the coach said.