Crystal Palace goalie Brian Rowland can win his biggest game as a professional on the same field where he starred during college.

The former UMBC standout has a chance to lead Palace to victory in its first playoff game tonight at 7:30 at UMBC Stadium against the defending United Soccer League Second Division champion Harrisburg City Islanders.

“It’s nice to be in an environment you are used to and kind of tie everything together,” Rowland, a standout at UMBC from 1999-2002, said. “There’s always pressure but you grow up playing the position, you get used to it and it comes with the territory.”

Rowland has started 12 of the past 16 games for Palace and took over the starting position full-time from Matt Nelson about a month ago. Nelson left Palace to be an emergency backup for the City Islanders in mid-July, putting the spotlight firmly on Rowland.

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But Rowland is used to the attention.

He shined late last season for Palace, and was penciled in as the starter entering the spring. A nagging right wrist injury, however, forced him to have surgery to repair a broken bone, which was huge setback for his offseason conditioning.

It took nearly the first half of the season to round into form, but Rowland is playing like the leader Palace co-manager Pete Medd saw last season. Rowland has posted three shutouts, a 1.53 goals-against average and is sixth in the league with 62 saves, despite playing in at least two fewer games than any player ranked ahead of him.

“He’s a quiet steady leader, he never gets rattled,” Medd said. “He’s a calming influence and very good technically.”

But being calm is something fourth-seeded Palace (11-8-1), which failed to make the playoffs last year in its inaugural season, has struggled against the fifth-seeded City Islanders (7-3-10).

Palace knocked the City Islanders out of the U.S. Open Cup with a shootout win in Harrisburg in a game featuring multiple ejections on June 24. Palace won again in Harrisburg on July 24, when it scored a goal during stoppage time with just nine men on the field to win, 2-1. Harrisburg won 1-0 in Baltimore on June 8.

The winner of the game advances to the semifinals on Saturday against top-seeded Charlotte (13-2-5) in North Carolina.

“Nothing short of excitement when you play each other,” Rowland said. “It’s one of those natural rivalries that develops in sports.”

dcarey@baltimoreexaminer.com