SANTA CLARA, Calif. – After a thrilling 2-1 finish over Portland on Sunday, the Santa Clara men's soccer team takes a quick break from West Coast Conference competition to travel to No. 23 Maryland on Sat., Oct. 25. The Broncos (5-5-3, 1-1 WCC) kick off against the Terps (7-5-2, 3-2-1 Big Ten) at 4 p.m. PST.
Fans can access live stats and a live stream of the game courtesy of the Maryland Athletics website.
"Maryland has had great success over the last ten years," said Santa Clara head coach Cameron Rast. "When we were looking for one more non-conference game, we saw the big RPI opportunities and a great test to see what a playoff team is like. Maryland is great opponent to test all of those things."
Going 1-1 in the opening conference weekend, Rast stresses staying in the positive grove as a group. "We want to be able to control the tempo of the game with our defending," said Rast. "Sometimes we are going to press and sometimes we are going to sit, meaning that we will make it difficult for them to get to the goal and see if we can just take the ball from them. For the attacking piece, I think it's important for us to continue to work on our ball movement under pressure and how we are going to transition to our attack. Both of those areas we have been working on and we are going to have to continue to work on."
The Broncos have previously faced two ranked opponents in the 2014 season. Santa Clara tied then-No. 1 UCLA 0-0 on the road on Sept. 12 and then fell to then-No.15 Cal 4-0 at home. Maryland will be just the third Top 25 opponent for Santa Clara.
Newcomer Carlos Delgadillo leads the team with three goals, three assists and nine points on the season. He had the first goal against Portland on Sunday off of Ryan Masch's free kick, which was featured as the No. 3 Top Play of the Week for The W.tv on Oct. 21. Three other players add to the Broncos' offensive force with each tallying two goals and four points on the season: Max Ornstil, Edson Cardona and Steve Eneme.
With Kendall McIntosh in the net and Benjamin Kucera and Valdemar Andersen holding down the back line, the Bronco defense has shut out opponents four times this year and limits them to a .097 shot percentage. McIntosh was named WCC Player of the Week on Sept. 15 and his save in the Cal match was featured as the No. 2 Top Play of the Week on the conference's Top Play Tuesday. He has 48 saves on the season with a .762 save percentage in his junior campaign.
Scouting the Terps
Santa Clara is 1-2-0 against Maryland with the first meeting occurring in 1997. The last meeting ended in a 3-1 result in the Terps' favor in College Park, Md. during the Adidas Classic on Sept. 9.
"Maryland understands who they are, what players they have to go to, and what's working for them," said Rast. "It's a good team and playing there is very tough. They have a very loud crowd that does a good job of really supporting their team. In so many ways this is just a great test for us. This can only make us sharper."
Maryland is recently coming off of a marquee road victory at then-No. 5 Indiana last Sunday where the Terps won, 2-1. They are on a four-match winning streak and have also beaten then-No. 3 Penn State, 4-0, on Oct. 12. The team is led by Mael Corboz who has five goals and 13 points in his junior season. Senior Mikias Eticha has scored three goals for Maryland.
Last season, the Terps went all the way to the final of the 2013 College Cup. They faced Notre Dame in the championship of the NCAA Tournament. Going up 1-0 in the first half, the Fighting Irish were able to come back to win, 2-1, in regulation and coin their first national championship. It was Maryland's 13th straight NCAA round-of-16 appearance.
GAME NOTES – Sat. Oct. 25, 2014
Santa Clara vs. #23 Maryland in College Park, Md.
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