Walterhoefer, No. 6 Heels Dump Providence
from staff reports
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Senior midfielder
Shane Walterhoefer tied the school record for ground balls in a
game with 15 and won 20 of 23 face-offs, only the fourth time in
school history a player has won 20 or more in a game, as the
sixth-ranked University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team
overcame a sluggish start to defeat Providence College 14-7
Wednesday afternoon at Fetzer Field. Senior attackman Bart
Wagner scored three goals, the fifth time in eight games this
season, he has matched or exceeded that total, and the Tar Heel
defense limited the Friars to only two goals, one on an extra-man,
in the final 34:38 of the game.
UNC improved to 7-1 overall while Providence fell to 0-4.
Next up for the Tar Heels is No. 9-ranked Duke Saturday at 2
p.m. at Kenan Stadium in a game to be nationally televised by
ESPNU. The Tar Heels will be seeking to end an 18-game losing
streak against Atlantic Coast Conference teams when they face the
Blue Devils while at the same time rewarding their first-year head
coach, Joe Breschi, with his 100th overall career collegiate
coaching victory. The Tar Heels last ACC victory came on
April 10, 2004 when Carolina beat Virginia 11-9 at Fetzer Field.
Breschi, who coached for 11 seasons at Ohio State before
coming to Carolina this season, has a 99-64 overall coaching ledger
including his first eight games as Tar Heel head coach. The
national telecast on ESPNU will mark the first of four straight
Saturday games the Tar Heels will play on the network.
Walterhoefer's 20 face-off wins marks the 15th time in his career
he has won 15 or more face-offs in a match. It was only the
fourth time in Tar Heel lore that a player has won as many as 20.
Walterhoefer has done it two of the other three times as well.
He set the school record with 23 face-off wins against Ohio
State on April 12, 2008 and he also won 20 against Hofstra on April
19, 2008. The other occasion came when Todd Oudemool won 22
against Towson on May 13, 1989.
Walterhoefer's 15 ground balls marked the sixth time in school
history a player has achieved that school record total.
Walterhoefer has accomplished it twice now. The
following players have claimed 15 ground balls in a game: Michael
Burnett against NC State on May 2, 1981; Todd Oudemool
against Towson on May 17, 1989; Jude Collins against Duke on
April 23, 1995; Jude Collins against Virginia on April 6,
1986; Shane Walterhoefer against Ohio State on April 12, 2008;
and Shane Walterhoefer against Providence on March 11,
2009.
Ten different Tar Heel players tallied goals in the match led by
Wagner's three. The senior attackman from Glen Arm, Md. has
now scored three or more goals in a game five times this season.
Wagner also had an assist in the match, giving him four total
points. Both junior midfielder Sean Delaney and junior
attackman Gavin Petracca scored twice for UNC. Both Delaney and
Petracca added assists and in the case of Delaney it was his first
of the campaign.
Junior midfielder Sean Burke had a pair of career highs in the game
as he had four assists and five points overall. The four
assists bettered the three he had against Robert Morris on February
7, 2009. The five points by Burke exceeded his previous
career high of four against Navy on March 2, 2007.
Sophomore attackman Billy Bitter had another big day for the Tar
Heels as he had a goal and three assists. Adding single goals
for the Tar Heels were junior midfielder Cryder DiPietro, senior
midfielder Ben Hunt, freshman midfielder Jimmy Dunster, freshman
midfielder Thomas Wood and senior midfielder Bobby McAuley.
The Friars were led offensively by Bobby Labadini and Colin Tigh
who each had four-point games, scoring a goal and passing for three
assists. Evan Olsen was Providence's leading goal scorer with
two while Evan Helda, Mike Feldberg and Danny Ryan also had
goals.
The Tar Heels won the ground ball battle for the eighth straight
game this season by a 53-29 edge. UNC is averaging 50.75
ground balls per game this season. UNC outshot the Friars
48-31, just short of their average of 49.0 shots per game.
The 14 goals scored just exceeded the team's average of 13.75
goals scored per game. The Tar Heels won 20 of 24 face-offs
overall and they are winning 64.9 percent of their face-offs this
season (124 of 191).
In the clearing game, UNC was successful on 20 of 21 clears,
improving their season percentage to .843. The Tar Heel ride
was successful nine times, including forcing five failed clears in
the fourth quarter as the Friars attempted to make a comeback.
Robert Bryan made 12 saves and allowed 11 goals for the Friars in
42:12 of action. He made four saves in the first quarter and
another five in the second. Tim Finnegan played the final
17:48 and made three saves while allowing three goals.
Grant Zimmerman went all 60 minutes in goal for Carolina and made
10 saves while allowing seven goals. After making only four saves
in the first three quarters combined, he had six stops and allowed
only one goal in the final quarter and that goal was on a man-up
opportunity.
For the second straight season, the Tar Heels found themselves
having to rally past the Friars to claim the win. In last
year's game at Providence, the Friars led 5-4 heading into the
fourth quarter before a 4-1 scoring run by UNC in the final 15
minutes lifted it to an 8-6 win.
Wednesday's comeback was not so dramatic but necessary
nevertheless. After Bart Wagner opened the scoring off an
assist by Billy Bitter 2:39 into the match, the Friars came back to
score the next two goals. Evan Olsen scored off an assist by
Colin Tigh at 7:18 of the quarter and just 1:13 later, PC went
ahead 2-1 on an unassisted goal by Bobby Labadini on a crease roll.
The Friars would maintain that lead until there 1:53 left in
the opening period when Wagner scored his second goal of the
period, assisted by Sean Delaney who sent a pass over the top to
Wagner who was open on the crease for the put away.
UNC briefly took the lead 49 seconds into the second quarter as
Sean Burke found a cutting Jimmy Dunster who found himself unmarked
with an unimpeded path to the goal for the put away.
Providence responded by scoring three unanswered goals with
Olsen scoring his second of the match at 12:54, Mike Feldberg
giving the Friars the lead at 7:16 and then Tigh taking a pass from
Labadini to make it 5-3 with 4:38 left in the half.
From that point on, the Tar Heel defense tightened and allowed only
two goals the rest of the way as UNC ended the game on an 11-2
scoring run. The Heels were able to score to score the final
three goals of the half to take a 6-5 lead at intermission.
Cryder DiPietro pounced on a ground ball and scored past
Bryan at 3:43 and then 1:02 later, it was Billy Bitter who made a
dodge around the crease to tie the game. Delaney then took a
pass from Burke and scored 10 seconds before halftime to give
Carolina the lead for good.
The Tar Heels ran off the first five goals of the third quarter to
get some separation in the game at 11-5. At 12:27, it was
Delaney again, assisted for the second straight goal by Burke to
make it 7-5. Forty-nine seconds later, Wagner notched his third
goal of the match off an assist by Petracca Then at 8:52, the
Tar Heels scored on the extra-man with Ben Hunt rifling a shot
Bryan off Billy Bitter's assist. At 3:25, Bobby McAuley
lasered one in from the top of the box off an assist by Wagner and
then Burke bullied his way in to score from close range just 37
seconds after that.
Providence's scoring drought ended with 1:54 left in the quarter,
17:44 since its last goal. Evan Helda scored off an assist by Colin
Tigh to make it 11-6.
The fourth quarter began with a three-minute unreleasable penalty
on UNC's Bart Wagner for illegal equipment. The Friars had a
great chance to get back in the game but instead found themselves
outscored 1-0 on their own three-minute EMO. Zimmerman twice
saves shots by Labadini in the first 29 seconds of the EMO and
after successfully clearing while a man-down with sophomore
defenseman Kevin Piegare carrying the ball into the attacking zone,
Bitter found Petracca for UNC's first man-down goal of the season
at 13:52. Providence was able to get off only one more shot
in the remaining 1:52 of the penalty as the Tar Heels killed clock
successfully.
Providence did eventually get an extra-man goal at 9:41 with Danny
Ryan scoring from Bobby Labadini after a slashing call against the
Heels. UNC answered that goal quickly with Thomas Wood
scoring off Burke's fourth assist of the game 29 seconds later.
Petracca then finished off the scoring with 3:37 left on an
unassisted goal in transition.
Providence had a two-man advantage after back-to-back penalties on
the Heels with less than three minutes remaining but Zimmerman
would go on and make two more saves to keep the Friars off the
scoreboard.
