Although the majority of the world calls the sport “football,” the fate of North Carolina’s men’s soccer team depended heavily on hands in its Friday evening matchup against No. 3 Maryland.
Goalkeeper Scott Goodwin’s hands, specifically, provided four crucial saves when it seemed Maryland had overwhelmed the UNC defenders.
But it was an errant Terrapin hand in the Maryland box that paved the way for a successful Tar Heel penalty kick, allowing UNC to walk away with the 1-1 draw in a physical, double-overtime match.
“Today’s game was at very high intensity level,” coach Carlos Somoano said. “It was legitimately maybe the top two teams in the country going at each other, and that’s physically exhausting.”
For UNC, the most disappointing aspect of its play was perhaps its failure to cash in on its 23 shots and its second-half personnel advantage following Maryland defender London Woodberry’s ejection.
The Tar Heels’ first chance came seven minutes into the match when junior forwards Ben Speas and Billy Schuler fired off multiple point-blank shots from within a scrum of defenders, all of which Maryland deflected. Speas again missed narrowly on two shots in quick succession in the 31st and 32nd minutes.
At halftime, Speas retired to the locker room having single-handedly outshot Maryland 5-2.
The Terrapins attacked aggressively but lacked potency without fleet-footed midfielder Sunny Jane, who sat out because of a red card against Duke in Maryland’s last match.
Maryland began the second half with five shots and a John Stertzer goal in the first seven minutes. Stertzer, who has scored 12 times this season, poked a throw-in past Goodwin in a crowded box in the 51st minute.