Christiano Francois has gone from earthquake-ravaged Haiti to top-ranked Maryland soccer

The soccer field trembled below Christiano Francois’s feet.

“Lonje ko li!” his coach shouted in Creole.

Lie down.

It was 4:53 p.m., on Jan. 12, 2010. The Notre Dame High School team in Cabaret, Haiti, was going through its practice rhythms when, six miles below the surface, the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates shifted: earthquake.

“Everyone was scared,” Francois, now a freshman forward at the University of Maryland, said softly last week. “We just went home. I was walking and I see all of the buildings down. It was sad.”

In 35 seconds, the 7.0 magnitude temblor pummeled the impoverished nation and reduced Port-au-Prince, the rickety capital, to rubble. Tens of thousands died, hundreds of thousands were injured and a million were left homeless.

“I lost a lot of my friends,” Francois said. “Some died, some were missing legs and arms.”

Francois considers himself lucky: His family and their small house on the north coast of Port-au-Prince Bay survived. As a precaution, they took shelter in a tent on their property. Fruit and rice provided nourishment, but access to water required a long walk.

The quake would also alter the trajectory of Francois’s life, setting him on a path to prep school in New Jersey and college in Maryland.

Among the most coveted recruits in the country, Francois has begun to prosper with the undefeated and top-ranked Terrapins, appearing in all 13 matches (three starts) and posting three goals and three assists.

In consecutive games last week, he scored an equalizer during a comeback victory over Rutgers and had the go-ahead goal late in the first half of a 2-1 triumph at ACC rival Duke.

“In the last few weeks, he has started to understand things,” said Maryland Coach Sasho Cirovski, whose team will face once-beaten and second-ranked North Carolina at 6 p.m. Friday at Ludwig Field. “He is hitting his stride.”

A common bond

If not for another Terrapin with Haitian roots, however, Francois might have picked another program. Reserve defender Widner Saint Cyr is a fourth-year junior who arrived at Maryland in 2009 after finishing high school in Rockland County in New York.

“We would not have gotten Christiano without having Widner here,” Cirovski said. “His world fell apart, and when you consider what he went through, having a mentor and guide to transition to college was absolutely vital.”

Although they’re from different towns near Port-au-Prince and didn’t become teammates until this fall, the pair forged an immediate bond through shared culture and heartache.

“Not a lot of Haitians have the chance we have had,” said Saint Cyr, who represented his country at the 2007 Under-17 World Cup in South Korea.

He was in College Park the day the earthquake struck.

With communication disrupted, “I felt like walking down to Haiti,” Saint Cyr recalled. Four days passed before he was able to make contact with family. His two siblings and their grandmother, who raised them after their parents died many years ago, were safe. Their home withstood the blows and served as shelter for others.