Sept. 25, 2008

Wake Forest-Maryland Game Notes

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The top two teams in men's college soccer meet on Friday night as No. 1 Wake Forest travels to College Park, Md., to meet the second-ranked Maryland Terrapins. Opening kickoff is set for 8:00 p.m. (ET) and the game will be televised live by Fox Soccer Channel (channel 141 on Time Warner Digital Cable in Winston-Salem).

"Maryland and Wake Forest traditionally have a great rivalry in terms of quality of play," head coach Jay Vidovich said. "The games are usually very closely contested. They have one of the best soccer environments in the country. Not many teams go in there and get a win. Hopefully our team will be ready."

Wake Forest enters the game with a 7-0-0 record and a 1-0-0 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference action. The 7-0-0 record matches the best start to a season in school history. The 2007 team also won its first seven games of the season.

The Deacons are coming off a 1-0 victory over Appalachian State on Wednesday night. Freshman Luke Norman scored the game's only goal in the 23rd minute. The goal was the second for Norman in his collegiate career.

Junior goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald recorded his fifth shut out of the season, making two saves. Fitzgerald has five clean sheets on the season and a 0.43 goals against average.

Maryland is 6-1-0 on the season, including an ACC-leading 2-0-0 record. The Terrapins have defeated Boston College and Duke in league play. Maryland downed American 4-0 in its last game.

Casey Townsend leads the Terps with four goals on the season, including two in the victory over American. Omar Gonzalez has scored three goals on the season, while Jeremy Hall and Rodney Wallace each have two goals on the season.

Maryland goalkeeper Will Swaim leads the ACC in goals against average (0.25) and save percentage (.875). Swaim has three shut outs on the season and has allowed only one goal on the season.

The Deacons and Terrapins are meeting for the 32nd time in series history. Maryland owns a slight edge in the all-time series, currently leading 14-13-4. The Terrapins lead the series 6-4-5 when meeting in College Park. Wake Forest won last season's meeting 2-0.

Live stats of the match will be available at umterps.com and a recap of the match will be available on wakeforestsports.com.

-WakeForestSports.com-