As the No. 19 Michigan men’s soccer team entered the second half of its second-round NCAA Tournament game against Central Florida on Sunday trailing by a goal, the quickly approaching reality of a premature end to the season began to dawn upon the 2,791 in attendance at the U-M Soccer Complex.

Michigan coach Steve Burns said he expected the crowd to be a little nervous.

But not his team, and especially not senior forward Justin Meram.

“I actually thought we were going to put one or two away in the first half. We were just down their throats after they scored,” Meram said after the victory. “At halftime, Coach said, ‘It’s gonna come, just stay composed and let’s not worry about it and just go into the second half at 0-0.’ And that’s what we did.”

It was Meram, after all, who eased some of the tension for the Michigan faithful when his shot in the 50th minute found the back of the net to knot the score, 1-1. For a player known for creating goals with his fancy footwork, this goal came naturally for Meram.

A perfect lead pass from senior midfielder Alex Wood found Meram one-on-one with UCF keeper Shawn Doyle. All that was left for Meram to do was finish.

Meram has been doing a lot of that lately— letting the goals come to him.

“At first, I was trying to score on my own per se, and now I’ve changed my outlook on everything,” Meram said. “With Soony and Hamoody and us three in the attack ... just the combination of us doing what we do best, no team can defend all three of us."

The goal was Meram’s eighth in his past six games, including one game-tying and one go-ahead goal. Excluding the game against Wisconsin in which he didn’t play, Meram has scored at least one goal in every game since his two-goal performance against Bowling Green on Oct. 27.

Meram sent the game into overtime largely because the the Wolverines maintained their composure, even while facing the possibility of elimination.

“It didn’t have the feel of one of those games,” Burns said. “Sometimes there’s a feeling when a team is just throwing bodies in front of the ball, the keepers on fire. … From a fan’s perspective, I think you could get pretty tight and say, ‘Oh, this might not be Michigan’s day.' But it never felt like that on the bench, and on the field, these guys certainly didn’t play like that.”

Had Meram failed to convert his open try, though, it would have been hard to avoid such feelings.

But Meram, a senior, knew exactly what was at stake. When asked if he knew what he had to do to keep his collegiate career alive, Meram didn’t hesitate.

His response?

“Score.”