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Photo Credit: Sarah Middlestradt

Rutgers Men’s Soccer Makes History With Crucial B1G Win Against Maryland

October 4, 2023

The Rutgers Men’s Soccer team pumped out one of their best performances of the year at the perfect time Tuesday night. The Scarlet Knights defeated Maryland on the road for their first ever victory against Maryland at Ludwig Field.

The intense 2-1 battle featured plenty of action on both the defensive and offensive sides. In the victory, there were a lot of great individual performances, but there is only one true hero for Rutgers and his name is Ciaran Dalton.

Dalton recorded a career high 10 saves in the matchup to lift the Scarlet Knights. Without some of Dalton’s incredible saves, there is no telling if Rutgers would have come out on top.

After being benched the game prior against Ohio State, Dalton played arguably the best game of his career. Dalton was all over the net, making diving saves from across the goal. It was an incredible masterclass performance from the sophomore.

😤😤😤

"What. save! Wold class from Dalton!"

📺@BigTenNetwork
📊 https://t.co/BLWzu64jnt #GoRU | #RUMS pic.twitter.com/M81b9haC4X

— Rutgers Men's Soccer (@RUMensSoccer) October 4, 2023

The ball... will just not go in the goal

A flurry of chances for the Terps in the last 10 min pic.twitter.com/XqpjJrzGfy

— Maryland Men’s Soccer 🐢 (@MarylandMSoccer) October 4, 2023

Scoring Recap

The action got started relatively quickly for the Scarlet Knights as Ola Maeland found the back of the net six minutes in. Maeland’s original shot hit the pipe, but a generous bounce back allowed Maeland to one touch the second into the goal. A great individual effort off of the fast break put Rutgers up one.

7' | OOOOOOLA⚽️

The senior gets his own rebound off the post for an early goal to put Rutgers ahead, 1-0!

📺 @BigTenNetwork
📊 https://t.co/BLWzu64jnt #GoRU | #RUMS pic.twitter.com/HdXBKm9I6k

— Rutgers Men's Soccer (@RUMensSoccer) October 3, 2023

Just over 12 minutes later Rutgers added to their lead off of a great rebound finish directly in front of the net by Ian Abbey. The Terps goaltender had no chance against Abbey’s finish as he was still on the ground after making a great save.

19' | 2-0 🤩

Ian Abbey gives the Scarlet Knights a two-goal lead with his second score of the season!

📺 @BigTenNetwork
📊 https://t.co/BLWzu64jnt #GoRU | #RUMS pic.twitter.com/iwh1vE2MBp

— Rutgers Men's Soccer (@RUMensSoccer) October 3, 2023

With a 2-0 lead things were looking good for Rutgers until Maryland got within one. The Terps through traffic kicked a nice ball into the grass in front of the net. The bounce off of the turf allowed the ball to get past a diving Dalton.

BEEN WAITING TO TWEET GOAL!!!!!!

Max Riley does it. It's 2-1 pic.twitter.com/Mw7Bh498FZ

— Maryland Men’s Soccer 🐢 (@MarylandMSoccer) October 3, 2023

Thankfully Dalton was a brick wall in the net and prevented the Terps from equalizing the score.

Breaking it down

The Scarlet Knights victory over the Terps was a huge one as they earned +3 points for the season. Rutgers moves to 3-5-2 (1-2-1) on the year while Maryland falls to 1-6-2 (0-4-1).

There aren’t enough words to describe how crucial Dalton’s performance was in this match. The Rutgers defense allowed 20 shots to be taken and 11 on net, so without some magic saves the outcome of this match would most likely look a lot different.

Hopefully this victory starts a winning streak, as Rutgers needs all the wins they can get if they want to play in the postseason and get a good seeding in the Big Ten tournament.