UNC men's soccer team looks to Farfan for victory over Maryland

To spur the No. 3 North Carolina men’s soccer team’s victory against No. 5 Maryland on Friday, senior Michael Farfan turned to the unexpected.

From 35 yards out, Farfan sent an unassisted shot rocketing toward the left side of the goal past Maryland’s keeper to give UNC a 1-0 lead just shy of 10 minutes into the game.

Forty-two minutes later, UNC (5-1, 3-0 ACC) turned to Farfan once more to lead the Tar Heels to a 2-1 victory against the Terrapins (4-2-1, 1-1-1).

The All-ACC midfielder sent a penalty kick straight into the back of the net after a Maryland handball to earn his second goal of the season and the night.

Rather than bending the ball over the keeper’s head just under crossbar — Farfan’s bread and butter until the matchup against Maryland — the senior confidently drew from an expanded repertoire in North Carolina’s win.

“He really took a power shot and really lined it up pretty well,” UNC coach Elmar Bolowich said. “I like that because that gives him another dimension in terms of his shooting, and he had the presence of mind to just rip it. (The first shot) really was a beautiful goal.”

But Maryland wasn’t ready to give up its first loss to North Carolina since 2003 without a furious offensive push that began with 15 minutes left on the clock.

A controversial handball called on UNC’s Stephen McCarthy put the Terrapins on the scoreboard as Matt Kassel earned his third goal of the season, sending his penalty kick to the right of goalie Scott Goodwin.

Maryland continued to rally in the last minutes of the game in attempts to nab overtime with a last-second score, earning its first corner kick of the game with less than 30 seconds to go.

UNC’s defense hunkered down and responded to the pressure, staying tight to counter a Maryland squad that outshot UNC 12-9. Goodwin earned four saves as the Terrapins struggled to locate their shots.

“You cannot give up your compactness on defense,” Bolowich said. “Our guys were really sharp. I think it was just a good awareness that we were in the right spots and to always intercept them, to not have them have clean looks at our goal.”

Sophomore Enzo Martinez shone in the midfield alongside Farfan, proving himself a workhorse that fed plenty of opportunities to North Carolina’s offense that could not be converted.

Although the front line found comfort with forward Alex Dixon returning to his starting position despite a still-bruised quad, the offense had difficulty finding its timing. North Carolina was whistled for 10 offside calls throughout the game compared to Maryland’s one.

“We had some offsides where we broke the line, but if we get through on those, if our timing is sharp, you know, who knows?” Bolowich said. “Running three, four times against the goalkeeper one-on-one, a lot better things can happen.”

Though Dixon, forward Eddie Ababio and midfielder Kirk Urso each had scoring opportunities killed by the offside whistle, the offense showed improvement from its performance in a narrow win against Wofford earlier in the week.

Despite this improvement, the attack still has room to grow as UNC enters a tough stretch of ACC competition in the coming weeks.

“We were clicking tonight,” Ababio said. “They had a hard line, so we were just making lots of runs and giving our midfield lots of options. We were one, two, three passes away from making the score 4-1.”

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