Heels Stay Perfect, Beat Navy
from press release
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Junior midfielder Sean
Delaney scored back-to-back goals 50 seconds apart with less than
six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and senior Grant
Zimmerman saved Patrick Moran's shot with less than one second to
play as the No. 5-ranked North Carolina men's lacrosse team edged
No. 9-ranked Navy 9-8 Friday night at Fetzer Field. The
back-and-forth game before a crowd of 1,442 fans on a 33-degree
night witnessed the seventh one-goal decision between the two
squads since 2000.
Carolina improved to 3-0 in Head Coach Joe Breschi's first season
while Navy fell to 2-1 in a coaching matchup of Tar Heel alumni
between Breschi, Class of '90, and Navy's Richie Meade, Class of
'76. The game was as scintillating and as tightly contested as last
year's 8-7 win by the Naval Academy over the Heels on the same
field in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament when the
Midshipmen upset the fourth-seeded UNC side. Friday night's victory
was only the second in the last eight games in the series between
the two teams. Each team has now won 12 contests in the 24-game
series.
UNC sped to a 3-0 lead but Navy erased that by halftime before
taking its first lead 3:15 into the second half. The remainder of
the second half saw mini scoring runs by the two teams with
Carolina scoring three straight to go up 7-5, Navy answering with
three in a row to lead 8-7 and Delaney striking for the last two
tallies to provide the Tar Heels with the winning margin.
Both Delaney and senior attackman Bart Wagner scored three goals
each for the Tar Heels while senior midfielder Ben Hunt, sophomore
attackman Billy Bitter and senior midfielder Bobby McAuley each had
one goal. Wagner has now recorded a point in 45 of 47 career games
while Hunt has at least one point in 17 successive games. Bitter
and Hunt each had two assists in the game as well.
All eight Midshipmen goals came from members of the junior class.
Navy was led offensively by junior attackman Tim Paul, who had
three goals and an assist. Junior attackman Brendan Connors had two
goals and one assist for the Mids while junior midfielder Patrick
Moran, junior midfielder Basil Daratsos and junior long-stick
midfielder Zack Schroeder had single tallies. Sophomore attackman
Andy Warner added two assists for the Midshipmen.
Navy had a distinct advantage in possession time, working the clock
and taking high percentage shots. Navy ended with a 36-28 shot edge
but despite having a lot of excellent looks at Grant Zimmerman only
18 of the 36 shots were on goal. Zimmerman made 10 saves while
allowing eight goals. UNC was limited to 28 shots by Navy's
trademark rugged defense and the Heels also struggled to find the
cage, put just 15 on goal as the Mids' Matt Coughlin had six
saves.
After UNC led 3-1 after the first quarter, Navy outshot the Heels
12-5 in the second frame and rallied to tie the game at the half
4-4. After both teams scored three times in the third quarter, Navy
outshot the Heels 13-6 in the final period but Zimmerman made five
of his 10 saves in the final 15 minutes, allowing the Heels to
outscore Navy 2-1 in the period.
Rarely is a Navy team on the short end of the ground ball battle
but the Tar Heels won that 44-31 in large part due to a 17-4
advantage at the face-off X. UNC senior midfielder Shane
Walterhoefer won 16 of 20 face-offs and had a game-leading seven
ground balls. It marked the 13th time in his career that
Walterhoefer has won 15 or more face-offs in a game.
Despite UNC's advantage in ground balls, Navy was able to keep the
game close because the Tar Heels exhibited some impatience on the
offensive end, making 21 turnovers, including 12 unforced
giveaways. Navy protected the ball bettered with only 12 turnovers
and both teams cleared the ball efficiently.
Carolina came out of the gate firing on all cylinders, sparking a
3-0 run in the first 5:23 of the game. Bart Wagner claimed a ground
ball in front of the cage and scored the first goal at 12:52 of the
first quarter as he beat Coughlin one-on-one on the crease. With
10:22 left in the quarter, Billy Bitter came from the end line and
split the Navy defense to easily score the second goal of the game.
It took just 45 seconds for Carolina to make it 3-0 as after a
face-off win, Ben Hunt fed Bart Wagner for his second goal of the
period. Navy would end up scoring on its first shot of the game
with Tim Paul finishing an Andy Warner assist to make it 3-1 with
7:14 left in the opening stanza.
Basil Daratsos pulled the Naval Academy within a goal with 12:38
left in the half with Warner getting his second assist of the game.
UNC answered just 13 seconds later on Delaney's first of three
goals, assisted by Bitter off a Walterhoefer face-off win.
Navy then shut down the Heels for the next 18:56 of the game,
taking a 5-4 lead in the process. Patrick Moran had an unassisted
goal with 10:28 left before halftime and then after a delay of game
turnover after a stalling warning issued against the Tar Heels, Tim
Paul fed Brendan Connors for the tying goal 1:06 before
halftime.
The Mids struck first in the second half as Paul scored again,
assisted by Nikk Davis at 11:45 of the third quarter. Shortly
thereafter freshman midfielder Jimmy Dunster made an athletic play
on a clearing attempt to win the Heels possession. UNC worked its
offense adeptly on the possession with Gavin Petracca feeding from
the right side over the defense the Navy defense to an open Bobby
McAuley who found the back of the net for a 5-5 tie at 8:29.
That goal sparked Carolina as Hunt scored off an assist by Bitter
with 6:04 left in the period and then Wagner scored his second goal
of the night after claiming a ground ball in traffic just 29
seconds after the score by Hunt.
On the ensuing face-off, the Mids won one of their mere four
face-off victories of the night and it was key as Zack Schroeder
won the ground ball, sped in on Zimmerman unmarked and scored with
his long stick to made it 7-6 within 10 seconds. That goal led to
another momentum shift which resulted in the tying goal by Paul,
assisted by Connors, with 2:12 left in the quarter as Paul found
himself open on the left wing for a 10-yard putaway.
Neither team scratched in the first six minutes of the fourth
quarter but with 8:41 left, Connors dodged a pair of Tar Heel
defenders and scored on the crease for an 8-7 lead for the Mids. A
little over two minutes later, Ryan O'Leary missed wide and
Zimmerman claimed the ground ball. The Heels cleared and Delaney
eventually went to the goal with resolve and scored the tying goal
with 5:40 to play.
Again the following face-off proved huge as Walterhoefer won it and
freshman long-stick defensive midfielder Mark Staines claimed the
ground ball. After a shot by Bitter went wide, Hunt found Delaney
for the winning goal with 4:50 to play.
The final 4:50 was frenzied indeed on both ends. UNC won the
face-off with a ground ball by Michael Jarvis. But the Heels threw
it out of the box and despite two ground ball wins by Charlie
McComas, the Heels were eventually called for failure to advance,
giving the ball back to Navy.
With 3:11 to play, a shot by Moran went wide, Zimmerman got the
ground ball and the Heels cleared. UNC turned it over with 1:41 to
play but 33 seconds later, Michael Jarvis stripped Tim Paul of the
ball, giving possession back to the Heels. Just 13 seconds later,
Navy forced another turnover as Jake Brosnan took it away from
Wagner and got the ground ball leading to a successful clear. Jason
Woppel's shot was saved by Zimmerman with 39 seconds left, Paul
retrieved the ground ball and his shot went wide with 27 seconds
left after which Navy called timeout.
Charlie McComas provided defensive pressure out of the timeout and
almost caused a turnover goal line extended on the left side of the
field. The ball dribbled out off McComas but 11 valuable seconds
had gone off the clock. Navy had 15 seconds to reset its offense
and eventually Moran had a shot from the right side of the box with
one second to play but Zimmerman turned it away to help Breschi
celebrate his 95th career coaching victory.
Carolina returns to action in just two days as the Tar Heels host
No. 17 Colgate Sunday at 1 p.m. at Fetzer Field. Navy has eight
days off before traveling to Lewisburg, Pa., to meet Bucknell on
February 28 at 1 p.m.
