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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The rest of the nation found out on Saturday what Maryland’s players already knew: There is no team in the nation that Maryland can’t beat.
Few teams are hotter than the fourth-ranked Terrapins, who had little trouble knocking off the top-ranked and previously unbeaten Virginia Cavaliers, 13-7, in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Byrd Stadium.
A week earlier, Maryland beat then-fifth-ranked North Carolina 13-8, in Chapel Hill.
“You can see it in practice,” Maryland coach Dave Cottle said. I knew we were going to play as well as we could play, I just didn’t know if it was good enough and today it was.”
The Terrapins (7-2, 2-1 ACC) have looked unstoppable in their past three games since falling, 9-8, to UMBC in triple overtime in Catonsville.
Maryland has another test on Friday night at 8, when it faces ninth-ranked Navy (8-2) at Byrd Stadium.
The Midshipmen are coming off an 11-10 overtime loss to Georgetown, which snapped their six-game winning streak. But still, Navy is allowing opponents to average fewer than five goals per game.
“They’re a machine,” Cottle said. “They grind you out, they play great defense, and we’re going to have to find some ways to score.”
Maryland’s defense also has been impressive, holding Virginia (9-1), which averaged nearly 15 goals a game to just seven — its lowest output of the season.
“I’ve never seen us play like this,” Maryland junior goalie Jason Carter, who played all but the last minute and recorded a career-high 15 saves, said. “We slid to everybody. It was amazing. We did what we wanted to do, and the defense played awesome.”
Cottle usually plays Carter for a half and Brian Phipps for the other, but Carter played so well in the first half that Cottle decided to stick with the hot hand and it paid off.
But it wasn’t enough for Carter to earn the starting job permanently, as Phipps will start against the Midshipmen.
Midfielder Jeff Reynolds has been the Terrapins’ top scoring option recently, and he recorded his second straight hat trick on Saturday. The junior has eight goals in his past three games.
Travis Reed recorded his fourth hat trick of the season and added two assists on Saturday, which is a good sign for the Terrapins. The freshman attacker had three straight games with at least three goals early in the season, but the former standout at Boys’ Latin had not recorded more than one goal in any of the past four games before Saturday’s win.
“I started the season off a lot stronger than I had been the last couple games,” Reed, who leads the team with 18 goals, said. “I think today was a way to get my confidence up again.”
After dominating two of the best teams in the nation, the Terrapins’ confidence is at a season-high.
“I think the only people who thought we were going to win was our team, the guys in our locker room,” Carter said. “Today was just our day.”
