October 26, 2005

COLLEGE PARK, MD - Another chapter in the history of Division I men's soccer at New Jersey Institute of Technology unfolded Wednesday night, when the Highlanders faced a national championship contender for the first time, losing at third-ranked Maryland, 4-0.

The Highlanders, who played a Division I schedule for the first time in 2004 and achieved full Division I status with championship eligibility for the first time this season, faced one of the nation's truly elite programs on Wednesday.

Maryland (13-3) has reached the national semifinals in each of the previous three seasons and the Terrapins came in having won seven in a row, including four against teams ranked in the Top 25.

"Maryland definitely belongs in the top four or five in the country," said NJIT coach Pedro Lopes, who played in the 1990 national championship game for Rutgers. "They had a lot of the ball and the goals they scored were deserved."

For nearly 40 minutes, the Highlanders and Terrapins were even at 0-0, but Maryland's Stephen King broke the ice at 39:45, assisted by Michael Dello-Russo, off a free kick.

Maryland went up, 2-0, at 43:18, on a tally by Matt Backman, assisted by King. It was the first of two rebound goals on the night for the Terrapins.

"We knew coming in that (Maryland) would have a lot of the play and create a lot of chances," said Lopes. "Collin (Cunning) made some good saves and we were looking to keep them in front of us and counterattack against their pressure."

With the score still at 0-0, NJIT's redshirt freshman Victor Bertini got what would be his team's best chance of the night on a counterattack midway through the first half. However, his shot missed just wide to the right.

"If we could have scored first or kept them off the board for the first 45 minutes, it would have put some air under our wings at halftime," Lopes said. "But we couldn't quite get there."

The home team added two second-half goals, with Robbie Rogers connecting at 52:14, assisted by Jason Garey and Graham Zusi finding the back of the net off a rebound of March Burch's shot at 69:35. Both teams were scoreless over the last 20:25.

Although Garey, a national Player of the Year candidate, had an assist, the Highlander defense scored a win in the game within the game by keeping him from scoring a goal. Garey came in with 16 goals on the season and is Maryland's all-time career goals leader, with 54.

Maryland's Craig Salvati recorded the shutout without having to make a save. Cunning, the NJIT goalkeeper, stopped 13 shots.

The result was typical for Maryland, which has eight shutouts and has outscored its opponents, 46-12.

While not a surprise, given the Terps' strength, Wednesday night's game was the first this season in which NJIT has allowed more than three goals or lost by a margin of more than two (NJIT had lost twice by two goals and five times by one goal coming into the game at Maryland).

"It was a great experience for our guys to see what it was like and what you have to be able to do to compete at (Maryland's) level," said Lopes. "It was also a lesson for our staff of what we have to do to put together a team and prepare it for this kind of game.

I knew when I first talked to the Maryland coach (Sasho Cirovski) about coming here to play this game that we'd be climbing a big mountain. I'm proud of our guys for the way they competed and did what we coaches asked them to do in our game plan."

The Highlanders are back in action on Saturday with a 1 pm game on Long Island at Atlantic Soccer Conference rival Adelphi.