Tar Heels Off to Best Start Since '02
from press release
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - In a game filled with
firsts and career highs, the third-ranked North Carolina men's
lacrosse team defeated first-year varsity program Detroit Mercy
19-4 Tuesday afternoon in a game that was moved to the Henry
Stadium turf after a Monday snowstorm in Chapel Hill. It was the
first game against a Top 5-ranked team for the Titans while UNC
starts the season 6-0 for the first time since 2002.
Junior attackman Joe Howard and senior attackman Matthias McCall
each had a career-high four points in the game while junior
midfielder Tommy D'Alessandro, freshman midfielder Chris Layne and
freshman midfielder Logan Corey all had their first career points.
Howard led the Tar Heels with a career-high three goals while
McCall, junior attackman Gavin Petracca, senior attackman Bart
Wagner, junior midfielder Cryder DiPietro and freshman midfielder
Jimmy Dunster all had two goals. Junior midfielder Sean Burke,
McCall, Petracca, Corey and junior attackman Kevin Federico all had
two assists for Coach Joe Breschi's squad.
Also seeing his first career action was sophomore goalkeeper Jamie
Locke who played the last 18:52 of the match and made six saves
while allowing only two goals, one of them when the Tar Heels were
a man-down. Senior Grant Zimmerman started in goal and made seven
saves while allowing only two goals in 41:08.
Detroit's starting goalkeeper Vince Diana had a solid game for the
Titans as he made 17 saves and also scooped up four ground balls.
Kevin Demorest had two goals to lead the Titans offensively.
Midfielder Matt Gregson had an excellent day, winning all seven of
his face-off attempts and earning a game-high eight ground
balls.
Shane Walterhoefer led UNC's 62-ground ball effort with six. No
other UNC player had more than four but 29 different Tar Heel
players had at least one ground ball. Carolina played all 36
players who were dressed out for the game. Sophomore defenseman
Ryan Flanagan, sophomore short-stick defensive midfielder Chris
Hunt and freshman short-stick defensive midfielder Chris Layne each
had four ground balls. Junior defenseman Chris Cortina put in a
stellar effort as he won four of five face-offs with his long stick
and scooped up a career-high three ground balls.
Detroit Mercy kept the Tar Heels in check for most of the first
quarter after early goals by Dunster and DiPietro. When Michael
Schumacher scored with 38 seconds left in the opening quarter, the
Titans were behind only 2-1. But after a face-off win, Bart Wagner
scored off an assist by Gavin Petracca with 19 seconds left in the
quarter and that started a run of six straight goals by the Tar
Heels.
Petracca score back-to-back goals to open the second quarter and
then he assisted on a tally by Dunster with 10:02 left in the first
half to make it 6-1. Sophomore attackman Billy Bitter and Wagner
followed with unassisted goals to make it 8-1 with a little over
eight minutes left in the period.
After neither team scored for more than five minutes, Detroit Mercy
broke the scoring drought as Kevin Demorest scored off an assist by
Vince Wigdahl with 2:41 left before the half. But the next seven
goals were scored by the Tar Heels as they built a 15-2 lead with a
little less than four minutes left in the third quarter.
Two goals in the last minute of the first half made the score 10-2
at the half. Matthias McCall scored off an assist by Bart Wagner 40
seconds before halftime and 16 seconds later sophomore short-stick
defensive midfielder Michael Burns scored his second career
goal.
Breschi emptied his bench at halftime and the reserves came through
with a 9-2 scoring margin in the second 30 minutes of play. UNC ran
off the first five goals of the third quarter. Sophomore midfielder
Colin Sherwood scored the first goal of his career on an extra-man
situation 1:32 into the second half off the first career assist by
Joe Howard. DePietro followed with a goal assisted by McCall and
then Howard started his hat trick at 11:09 of the quarter off an
assist by freshman midfielder Logan Corey, his first career point.
The Chapel Hill to Chapel Hill connection on that goal put the
Heels ahead 13-2.
The next two goals came off assists by Federico as he fed Chris
Layne for the Philadelphia native's first Tar Heel goal at 5:24 of
the quarter and then McCall was the recipient of Federico's
largesse with 3:52 remaining.
The Titans bounced back with successive goals. Pat O'Shea scored an
extra-man goal with 1:48 left in the third quarter and then
Demorest scored his second goal of the game with 10:42 remaining in
the game.
UNC ended the game on a 4-0 run. Federico scored an unassisted goal
with 9:50 left and Howard and Corey hooked up on their second goal
and assist combination of the contest 52 seconds afterwards.
Tommy D'Alessandro scored his first career goal on a fast break
situation with 7:21 left before the final horn. The final score
finished off Howard's hat trick as he took an assist from McCall
and tallied UNC's third extra-man goal of the game with just 1:45
to play.
The Tar Heels outshot the Titans 71-24 in the game, including a
24-2 margin in the second period. The game was played end-to-end
with both teams preferring a fast-break game. The pace led to a lot
of shots, a plethora of ground balls (62-42 for NC), a bevy of
turnovers (37 for Detroit, 27 for Carolina) and a very effective
riding game by Carolina which forced 15 failed clears by the
Titans.
