Two penalties told the story Monday evening in College Park, Md. They arrived just six minutes apart but looked nothing alike, one confidently bulging the side netting, the other barely scooting in. They counted the same, identical ticks on either side of Ludwig Field’s scoreboard in a frenetic 1-1 draw between Virginia and Maryland.
This is college soccer’s greatest rivalry, a derby with its own Wikipedia page, a conflict that annually spawns videos of players with blood rolling down their faces. No blood spilled Monday. It might as well have, if only from the barbs the home fans lobbed during the rivalry’s first installment at Maryland since 2015.
“They call you names,” junior defender Nick Dang said. “They talk about your girlfriend, your mom, whatever. It’s fun. But just tune it out and it’s not a big deal.”
The game marked a departure from the crushing congruence of the Cavaliers’ (2-1-1, 0-0-0 ACC) first three games, with all their one-sided clumps of possession. The Terrapins (1-1-2, 0-0-0 Big 10) forced the Cavaliers, at first, into a style to which they are unaccustomed, controlling the first 25 minutes.
They manufactured a couple opportunities and even forced a diving save from senior goalkeeper Joey Batrouni, only his second of the season. But it all amounted to nothing. Allowing Maryland the ball was, in fact, part of Virginia’s plan.
“Typically when we press them, they just kick it, and it becomes frantic,” Coach George Gelnovatch said. “So we tried to sit off them a little bit and see if we can get control of the game that way.”
Virginia eventually wrested away control, gradually growing into the game, chances starting to materialize. The best of them seemed a certain goal, but Maryland freshman goalkeeper Laurin Mack dropped into a split save and slapped a bar of an arm to junior defender Reese Miller’s one-on-one chance.
The opening goal arrived almost by accident. Junior midfielder Umberto Pelà, recycling a cleared cross at the penalty area’s edge, took a touch and stepped forward.
His next step never came. A leg entered his path and tugged him down, raising an immediate cry from the visiting bench. A whistle immediately followed, signaling a pivotal penalty. The referee’s visit to the VAR monitor quickly confirmed the initial call.
Up stepped Dang, who carried things out with little ceremony, just lethal dispassion. Three measured steps backward, a grasp of the hips and then a shot that pierced the bottom left corner, whereupon everyone wearing navy blue mobbed Dang in the corner.
It may have surprised some to see Dang, a defender, take the penalty. But he is one of the team’s designated takers, and he scored from the spot against North Carolina during spring league. He felt confident, he said, and the authoritative penalty showed it.
The lead lasted less than six minutes. A loose ball drifted for a fleeting moment at the edge of Virginia’s penalty area, sending junior forward Triton Beauvois and a Maryland player lunging forward. The Maryland player got there first and then tumbled to the ground, over Beauvois’s foot.
Just like the first time, the whistle blew, the referee visited the video monitor and the call held up. And just like the first time, the penalty taker scored.
But not without a collective gasp from everyone watching. Sophomore midfielder Leon Koehl’s penalty was, by almost every measure, poorly taken. But the ball squirmed underneath Batrouni, scooting over the line and into the goal.
“Guessed the right way,” Batrouni said. “Unfortunately, it went a little bit under me, and it was unfortunate that it went in.”
Batrouni could only wave his arms in frustration, hands on hips.
The second half delivered frantic action, back and forth, nothing ever settled. Maryland started as the aggressor, sending a couple shots flashing over the goal. But Virginia stole back control, and there went graduate forward Hayes Wood, chasing down a through ball and shunting a defender aside. Wood’s chance seemed a sure goal, but Mack again dropped into the splits and somehow used a lunging foot to stick the ball away. Wood walked away with his hands disbelievingly on his head.
“Two game-saving saves,” Gelnovatch said. “One of those goes, we win the game.”
It was, all told, an appropriate chapter in the rivalry. It was a game of physicality, of tackles that tiptoed the line of recklessness, of sometimes unhinged fandom. It was Virginia against Maryland.
“It’s hard to play games like this on the road,” Gelnovatch said. “This is a great environment that they put here. It’s loud. It’s tough to deal with. The fans are obnoxious. If you can deal with this, you can deal with anything.”
The game’s challenge presented a critical appetizer for the onrushing gauntlet of ACC play, which Virginia will enter Friday when they host Duke at Klöckner Stadium. The game is set for kickoff at 7 p.m. and will air on ACC Network.
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