Virginia Men’s Soccer Falls to No. 11 Maryland 2-1 in the “Battle of the DMV”

UVA strikes first, but suffers its first loss of the season to the Terps in D.C.

The Virginia Cavaliers had a golden opportunity for a marquee victory on Monday night, as they faced the 11th-ranked Maryland Terrapins in the “Battle of the DMV” at Audi Field in Washington D.C. The Hoos had the Terps on the ropes as UVA struck first in the 26th minute and held Maryland scoreless through the first sixty minutes of the match.

Then, Maryland flipped the script, scoring on a penalty kick in the 60th minute to even the match before taking the lead in the 77th minute on a brilliant strike from Brayan Padilla. That 2-1 score would hold for the remaining minutes and the Cavaliers suffered their first loss of the season.

Virginia drew first blood on a goal by freshman Michael Tsicoulias in the 26th minute. Paul Wiese passed the ball to Tsicoulias, who sent a well-placed shot into the top left corner for the first goal of his UVA career.

The Virginia defense did well to keep Maryland off the board through the first half, but that process was not without difficulty. Maryland had many chances to score and UVA goalie Holden Brown saw several shots come his way. Brown had an incredible performance, making nine saves during the game.

Maryland outshot Virginia 18-3 and put 11 shots on goal as compared to Virginia’s one on the Tsicoulias goal. Maryland also had seven corners to Virginia’s two.

Late in the first half, forward Daniel Wright received his second yellow card after a hard foul, leaving UVA with only ten men on the field for the remainder of the game.

With Virginia down a man and Maryland aggressively playing for an equalizer, the UVA defense had its back up against the wall.

A foul on junior midfielder Isaiah Byrd in the box in the 60th minute led to a Ben Bender penalty kick goal to tie the game.

18 minutes later, Maryland took the lead on a highlight-reel goal from Brayan Padilla, who kicked from several yards beyond the box and sent a blazing shot curving into the top left corner of the goal. Holden Brown did not stand a chance trying to save that shot.

Virginia tried to find an equalizer to send the game into overtime, but Maryland did well to control possession for the rest of the match and the Cavaliers were defeated 2-1.

Virginia drops to 2-1 on the year and will look to rebound against Syracuse in the first ACC match of the season on Friday at 7pm at Klockner Stadium.