The Terrapin men’s soccer team continued this season’s dominance of longtime rival Virginia with a commanding victory on the ACC Tournament semifinals tonight.
With a beautiful second half goal off a restart, the Terps ran away with a 2-0 victory here in Cary, N.C. to advance to Sunday’s championship game against the winner of No. 1 seed North Carolina and No. 5 seed Boston College.
Midway through the second half, midfielder Matt Kassel dumped off a free kick to a streaking Taylor Kemp. Kemp immediately put in a low cross to forward Jason Herrick. Herrick put through his second goal of the night and his third this season against Virginia
Herrick scored on a rebound in the first half as well.
The Terps are now 2-0 against the Cavaliers this season, outscoring their rivals 4-0. It’s certainly a turn from last season when the Terps failed to score a goal in all three contests (regular season, ACC tournament and NCAA tournament).
The defense held together well, despite several blunders by Billy Cortes. Goalkeeper Zac MacMath held up well and saved a penalty kick by Ari Dimas in the final minutes of the first half.
Chris Eckard is the Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s soccer beat reporter. Reach him at ceckard@umdbk.con and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ceckard.