COLLEGE PARK, MD – The Maryland Terrapins defeated the Iona College men's soccer team 4-0 in the First Round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament on Thursday night. The Maroon & Gold trailed by just a goal at the halftime break, but three Terrapin tallies in the second half sealed Iona's fate.
MATCH SUMMARY
Iona, with its adrenaline flowing, played a fast, opening 15 minutes of the match. The Gaels had the first two shots of the match, but neither was on net. Maryland's first shot of the night was stopped by
Giuliano Santucci.
The Gaels' best first-half opportunity was on a scramble just outside the six-yard box; a cross into the box skipped through two Maryland defenders and
Najim Romero tried to chase it down but was just barely beat to the spot by Neumann who thwarted the chance. Romero could barely get a foot on it before it was smothered by the keeper and a crisis was averted for Maryland.
Santucci made his second stop of the evening in the 20
th minute, but could not corral it; as the ball bounded out and found its way back towards the middle, Justin Gielen placed a header into the lower-left corner of the cage and gave the Terrapins the first lead.
Things began to settle down after the first score. Maryland's defense played much more soundly with a lead; the Terps could focus on slowing down the Gael offense that was creating its own opportunities all throughout the first half. Despite some good chances, the Maroon & Gold rarely tested Niklas Neumann.
Despite the dominance on the ball by the Terps in the latter portion of the first 45 minutes, the Gaels entered the break trailing by just one goal. Santucci made a couple of huge stops on his line late in the half to keep the Gaels within striking distance.
After a strong finish to the first half, the Terps brought the same energy to begin the second half. Maryland controlled in the Iona third of the field and two early shots went just wide.
The turning point of the match came with just under 30 minutes to play in the match.
Esad Mackic got in behind the defense and his sliding shot got past Neumann but sailed just outside the left post and out of bounds.
Eimantas Lotuzys fed a perfect ball through the Maryland defense and Mackic missed the equalizer by a hair.
Four minutes later, an Iona turnover on a throw-in led to a free run towards net for Eric Matzelevich, who buried a rocket of a shot to make it 2-0 in favor of the Terrapins. The Terps got their third tally just eight minutes after, making it a 3-0 game with just under 18 minutes to play.
The nail in the coffin would be a penalty kick in the 83
rd minute. Luke Brown netted his first career goal to make it a four-goal game and end Iona's historic season.
NOTABLE NUGGETS
- Iona played without its leading goal and point scorer, Mauro Bravo, who was held out due to yellow card accumulation.
- With the clean sheet, Maryland extends its NCAA Tournament shutout streak to 658 consecutive minutes.
- Santucci made five saves in the first half for the Maroon & Gold. The junior finished with six total.
- The Terps got goals from four different scorers; two of the four tallies were unassisted.
- Tomas Jamett finished with a team-best three shots. Alessio Hernandez and Romero were responsible for the only three shots on net.
- The Gaels' historic season ended with its first NCAA Tournament appearance after capturing the program's first MAAC Championship.
- Iona's 14 wins is the program's best mark since it won 15 in 2011. Eight wins away from Mazzella Field in 2019 is Iona's most in this millennium.
- Juan Alcantara, Francesc Chulia and Malcolm Moreno all put a bow on their Maroon & Gold careers.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Be sure to follow Iona College athletics and men's soccer on all social media platforms:
ICGaels: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (Email Updates)
Iona Men's Soccer: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (Email Updates)
