[NORTH CAROLINA-MARYLAND] Despite playing with a man advantage for nearly 50 minutes, No. 2 North Carolina had to settle for a 1-1 tie with No. 3 Maryland intheir ACC showdown.
Maryland struck less than six minutes into the second half when the Carolina defense was unable to clear Kaoru Forbess‘throw-in into the box and John Stertzer ran on to the ball and slotted it past Scott Goodwin to give the Terrapins a 1-0advantage.
Ben Speas nearly came up with the equalizer in the 58th minute but his shot from 25 yards ricocheted off the crossbar.
UNCpiled on the pressure and two minutes later London Woodberry was called for a handball in the area and red carded. Junior EnzoMartinez converted the penalty to equalize with his eighth goal of the campaign.
Will Swaim had an excellent game in the Terrapin goal andstymied the Tar Heels with seven saves to preserve the tie that kept Maryland in first place in the ACC standings.
“I’m delighted to come out of here with a tie considering wehad to play a man-down for the last 50 minutes of the game,” Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski said. “I think our guys put in a great effort andwe’ll take this. I’m normally not happy with ties but we’ll take one tonight. We came out in the second half and started to control the match and got the goal. Obviously, thingschanged on the penalty kick and the red card. We had to absorb a lot of pressure and pick our moments to go forward and we still had a couple decent chances. This is a good result. Carolina is agood team.”