No. 2 Maryland earns key win over No. 17 Indiana
Stephane Njike led No. 2 Maryland men’s soccer with a goal and assist as they hung on to beat No. 17 Indiana 3-2 in a marquee matchup at Ludwig Field at the University of Maryland Oct. 24.
The game started even. Maryland had a narrow one-goal lead by halftime. Two Maryland goals in the second half proved too much for Indiana to overcome.
Maryland left-back Luca Costabile lay on the turf holding on to his ankle after getting slide-tackled just over five minutes into the match. He was in visible pain, rolling around and yelling on the ground.
The crowd waited for him to get escorted off the field. Instead, he got up and sprinted back into the game after a brief period on the sideline, to the roar of fan applause.
“I gotta score a goal, and we’ve got to win today,” said Costabile, talking about how he found the strength to get up.
He followed through by delivering a strike that slipped through the goalkeeper’s hand in the 14th minute.
Costabile wasn’t the only player who stood out. Njike, the talented forward, assisted Sadam Masereka’s goal in the 58th minute and had his own goal in the 75th minute to round out an excellent night for him as well.
The win puts Maryland at 10-0-3 on the year and 6-0-2 in Big Ten play on a night that also honored the 2005 Maryland team that won the national championship.
Maryland’s No. 4 ranking, and current second-place standing in the Big Ten leads some to believe that this team can follow in the footsteps of the 2005 team.
“I think I’m seeing a lot of similar toughness, similar hunger, similar honesty in how we work, how we play together, how we fight, how we play for the crest,” said Maryland men’s soccer head coach Sasho Cirovski.
The atmosphere of the game was enhanced by the energy of the fans at Ludwig Field.
“I got to enjoy all the beautiful moments out here with… five thousand, six thousand fans… It’s unbelievable,” said Costabile.
A crowd of 5,580, the largest crowd drawn since 2018, provided a boost of morale to the players. That year was also the last that Maryland won a national championship, according to the University of Maryland Athletics.
The game was not easy. Indiana’s top goal scorer Palmer Ault scored to bring them back to a one goal deficit in the 81st minute but Cirovski said he was happy with his team’s defense.
“We did a good job of neutralizing him…his goal was one of the few times we actually lost him in the box,” said Cirovski.
Maryland looks to keep this momentum, heading into a season-defining matchup against No. 14 Washington for possession of first in the Big Ten on Halloween at 7:30 p.m.