Maryland men's soccer loses to Delaware 2-1

The No. 20 Maryland men's soccer team fell 2-1 to Delaware in heartbreaking fashion Tuesday night at Ludwig Field.

After the Terrapins tied it up at 1-1 on Emmanuel Korvah's header in the 88th minute, the team looked to be headed to its second straight overtime game, but the Blue Hens immediately scored under a minute later to squeak out a late victory.

Maryland appeared to be in okay position after a cross by Delaware's John Schroeder in the 89th minute found only Terps defenders, but Tsubasa Endoh's attempt to clear it went straight toward the Blue Hens' Thomas de Villardi, who rocketed a shot past Maryland keeper Cody Niedermeier for the game-winner.

The Blue Hens drew first blood in the 47th minute when Ben Sampson headed in a corner kick by de Villardi. Sampson was able to head the ball at the ground and bounce it in, and Niedermeier was unable to get a hand on it.

The header was only Delaware's fourth shot of the game, but once again, Maryland's opponent capitalized on the few chances it received.

"To tie it up with 2 minutes left is disheartening, and it's not the standard of Maryland soccer," Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovksi said. "It's going to be a tough night."

That's been the theme of Maryland's season lately. The Terrapins held a +93 goal differential going into the matchup, and had 13 shots to Delaware's six Tuesday night. The Blue Hens only had three shots on goal, but two of them went in. The Terps were unable to convert any of their six shots on goal.

"This was the kind of night I feared could happen to us, and tonight it did," Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovski said.

Like many other opponents the Terps have faced lately, Delaware packed it in defensively and made it hard for Maryland to get any crosses into the box. Tsubasa Endoh led the team with four shots, while Mael Corboz had three, Jorge Calix had two and Eryk Williamson had one. No other players attempted a shot for Maryland.

"It doesn't just happen automatically, you have to make it happen," Cirovski said.

The Terps didn't have their best defender available Tuesday night, as  junior Alex Crognale was suspended after getting his fifth yellow card of the season Friday against Indiana. In his absence, Cody Albrecht got his first start of the season, playing forward while Aaron Samuels moved back to play defense.

"We were very small without Alex playing today," Cirovski said. "We were tiny compared to them.

"We're just small, that's who we are," he said. "That's our world, and we'll move on."

Delaware goalkeeper Todd Morton handled the barrage of shots that came his way, making four saves. Maryland's Niedermeier had one save and allowed the two goals.

The first half was a scoreless affair, with Niedermeier only having to make one save. The Terps had nine shots in the half, with three of them coming on goal. The Blue Hens didn't make many runs in the half, only attempting three shots.

At the end of the half, David Kabelik had a chance to put the Terps on top, but his sliding shot in the 37th minute as Morton dove at him crawled just wide of the right post, keeping the game scoreless.

Korvah's goal was his first of the career. The sophomore had appeared in just two games in 2015 after playing in eight games and starting three as a freshman.

The Terrapins will take on No. 17 Washington at Ludwig Field this Friday at 7:30 p.m.

"That game's a must-win for us," Korvah said. "We got to get that W."

Ed. note: This article has been updated to reflect a final score of 2-1, not 1-0. The original story also said the team had lost two games in a row when it had actually tied its previous game. We regret the publishing error.