Men's Soccer Rounds Out Road Trip with 4-1 Loss at No. 9 Maryland

Sunday, September 7

College Park, MD

7:00 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

1-3-0

No. 8 Maryland

3-1-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Davidson	0	1	1
MARYLAND	2	2	4

Men's Soccer Rounds Out Road Trip with 4-1 Loss at No. 9 Maryland

9/7/2008 11:34:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Matt Harris - Assistant SID

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – In their final match of a weekend road trip, the Davidson Men's Soccer team dropped a 4-1 decision to No. 9 Maryland Sunday night at Ludwig Field in College Park, Md.

The lone Wildcat score on the evening came in the 61st minute when junior Robert O'Donnell gathered a long throw-in from the far sideline and flicked a pass into the middle of the box, where it was collected by classmate Machel Turner, whose shot from five yards out found the back of the net.

With the score, Turner became the first Davidson player to record multiple goals on the year, chalking up his second of the season. O'Donnell's assist was his first of 2008.

Sophomore Matt McElroy recorded eight saves in his first action of the year, and was one of five Wildcats in action who are orginally from the Washington, D.C. area, including A.J. Grant, Josh Zipin, Greg Macnamara, and O'Donnell.

Davidson Head Coach Matt Spear knew his team would be in for a challenge against the perennial national power Terps.

“Maryland is a very talented team that has national championship aspirations every season,” he said. “We knew it would be a tough test to play at their stadium, which is an environment unlike any other in college soccer. It is special for our guys to get to experience something like that.”

The scoring began in the 21st minute when Casey Townsend scored his second goal in two games to give Maryland the 1-0 lead. Jeremy Hall put in the first of his two goals at the 35:28 mark of the first half, followed by Rodney Wallace's goal off a corner kick to bring the tally to 3-0.

Hall's two goals were a match-high total, with Graham Zusi, recording the assist on two of the Terrapin's scores. Hall also led all players with six shots, five of which were on goal, with Drew Yates taking five attempts, with three shots on goal.

For the 'Cats, Turner and Zipin tied for the team lead with two shots apiece, with Charlie Reiter and Yannick Pilgrim each accounting for one of the team's six total shots. Despite the loss, Spear was confident that his team will be able to learn from what happened and use it to their advantage.

“Some of our goals were to play better than last Friday, and that we accomplished,” he said. “We had lots of energy and were sharper all over the field. It was definitely an improvement from Friday, and we learned we could bounce back and play better every game. It's always tough to take something from a loss, but if we can continue to improve game to game, I'll be happy with this road trip.”

Davidson will return home next weekend when they play host to the Panthers of High Point University next Saturday night. Kick off is scheduled for 7 p.m. from Alumni Stadium.