The Maryland Terrapins upset No. 6 Wake Forest Sunday in a shutout, 1-0 win Sunday. Senior Hayley Brock scored the game’s only goal in the 4th minute.
Brock’s goal came off a through ball by freshman Lauren Berman. Berman’s pass got Brock behind the Demon Deacons’ backline and she easily tapped it in for the score. Megan Gibbons was also credited with an assist.
Wake Forest outshot the Terrapins 17-6, but the majority of the Wake Forest’s shots were little challenge for Maryland and several potentially dangerous ones were blocked. Maryland blocked three of the Demon Deacons’ shots including, two from the senior, Stengel. Maryland contained Stengel well, limiting her to four shots, none of which were on goal.
“We only created maybe three good chances to score,” Wake Forest head coach Tony da Luz admitted after the game. “They did a good job defending Katie (Stengel) and they did a great job of getting numbers back behind the ball… We had a lot of territory but the quality in the final third wasn’t good enough. We just weren’t very brave in the final third as far as taking players on 1-vs.-1.”
Stengel nearly leveled the game in 54th minute off a free kick about 30 yards away from goal. Unfortunately for Stengel and Wake Forest, her shot went just over the crossbar. Wake Forest’s best chance to equalize, however, may have come in the 77th minute when Stengel took a corner kick for the Demon Deacons. Her cross found Megan Curan but Curan’s shot went wide.
Maryland, coming off a poor performance against Virginia Tech in a 2-0 loss Thursday, executed much better in Sunday’s match. On Thursday, the Terrapins often failed to complete passes and created few scoring opportunities.
Conversely, the Terrapins created several opportunities in the first half on Sunday. In the 32nd minute, Ashley Spivey sent a through ball to Brock. Aubrey Bledsoe made the save and kept Wake Forest’s deficit from doubling.
“This was a huge win for us.” Maryland head coach Jonathan Morgan said after the game. “We haven’t had a quality win yet, we’ve had some good results but we haven’t had a major result. I thought our first half was really good…Second half wasn’t that aesthetically pleasing to watch but I thought we did a good job at defending and we found a way to win, at point that’s all we need. Thursday night was super disappointing and confidence was low so this is great for our team right now.”
Maryland will need confidence as they face the toughest part of their schedule next week as the Terrapins face Notre Dame and Virginia on the road. Wake Forest meanwhile will travel to face Boston College and Syracuse.
