Tar Heels Hold Off Ohio State
from press release
BALTIMORE - Billy Bitter led North Carolina
with four goals and an assist Saturday afternoon as the 10th-ranked
University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team outlasted Ohio
State 12-11 at Kelly Field at Calvert Hall College High School in
Baltimore, Md. It was the fourth straight game involving the Tar
Heels which has been decided by only one goal and UNC is now 3-2
overall in one-goal decisions this year.
Besides Bitter, the Tar Heels got two goals and an assist from Bart
Wagner, two goals from Sean Burke and single goals from Jimmy
Dunster, Sean Delaney, Mark Staines and Gavin Petracca. All those
goals were needed to overcome a brilliant performance from Ohio
State's Joel Dalgarno who had five goals and two assists for seven
points for the Buckeyes.
With the win, UNC improved to 9-4 on the season and it has exceeded
its win total of last season already. Ohio State fell to 6-5 with
the loss. The game marked a head coaching matchup of UNC's Joe
Breschi and his former chief assistant at OSU, Nick Myers, who took
over for Breschi after he left for Chapel Hill last June. The win
by the Tar Heels also avenged a 14-11 loss to the Buckeyes last
year.
UNC outshot the Buckeyes 46-37 and for the 13th straight time this
season UNC won the ground ball battle at 47-30. Face-off man Shane
Walterhoefer led the Tar Heels with 10 ground balls and he
dominated the X, winning 18 of the 26 face-offs in the game.
Sophomore short-stick defensive midfielder had 10 ground balls for
the Tar Heels.
ACC Select
Brandon Freeman went all the way in goal for OSU and made 12 saves
while allowing 12 goals. UNC freshman James Petracca made his first
career start, replacing the injured senior Grant Zimmerman, and he
made 11 saves while allowing 11 goals. Petracca also had four
ground balls.
Turnovers were a problem for both teams as UNC committed 21,
including three failed clears, and OSU had 17, including seven
failed clears.
Dalgarno was on fire for the Buckeyes both early and late, scoring
three first quarter goals and two late in the fourth quarter. He
opened the scoring with an unassisted goal at 12:43 of the first
period. Carolina tied the game just 1:10 on a transition goal by
Mark Staines, a long-stick middie, off an assist by Chris Hunt, who
had forced a turnover and scooped up the ground ball before feeding
Staines, who scored his second career goal.
OSU went back up 2-1 on a Dalgarno goal at 9:22 of the opening
period assisted by Jeff Ryan. Freshman Jimmy Dunster then beat
Freeman with a shot at 4:14 to tie this up again. Dalgarno answered
with an unassisted goal with 3:01 left in the period.
The Tar Heels then went on a four-goal run to take a 6-3 lead. Sean
Delaney threaded the needle for a game-tying goal with 19 seconds
left in the opening period before UNC ran off three straight to
start the second quarter. Bart Wagner scored on the crease after
claiming a ground ball at 14:21. Sean Burke took a pass from Bobby
McAuley and scored on an outside rocket at 13:37. The four-goal run
was capped by a fast break goal at 9:21 with Wagner assisting
Petracca on the score.
The Buckeyes fought back with the next two goals of the half before
Billy Bitter scored off the second assist of the second quarter off
the stick of senior Bobby McAuley with 1:30 to go before
intermission.
OSU came out and stuck the first goal of the second half as James
Green tallied at 11:57. James Petracca made a save on a shot in an
EMO situation seconds later to keep the lead in UNC's hands.
The Tar Heels then got the next two goals. Bitter scored unassisted
on a dodge around the crease at 10:16 and he scored again
unassisted at 2:58 to break a seven-minute scoring drought by both
teams.
OSU answered with a goal by Jeff Ryan at 2:18 of the third quarter
but Sean Burke retaliated with a second goal on an outside shot,
scorching the net at 1:14 to put the Heels up 10-7.
OSU started the final quarter a man-up after a holding call against
McAuley and the Buckeyes took advantage with an extra-man tally by
James Green at 14:47. UNC then scored its own man-up goal as Bart
Wagner quick-sticked a pass from Bitter at 11:37 to make the score
11-8. The Tar Heels then ended a nearly eight-minute period without
a score as Bitter got his fourth of the game, assisted by freshman
Thomas Wood to make it 12-8 with 3:49 to play.
The game was hardly over, however, as the Buckeyes got goals from
Dalgarno and Dan Bain only 28 seconds apart to make the Tar Heel
margin 12-10 with 2:43 to play.
After a flurry of turnovers, ground balls and failed clears by both
teams over the next couple of minutes, Dalgarno drove the right
alley to score with 14 seconds left, narrowing the UNC lead to a
mere 12-11.
But UNC won the final face-off, Walterhoefer's 18th win of the day
as freshman Mark Staines claimed the crucial ground ball to run out
the clock.
The Heels will now have seven days before meeting fifth-ranked
Hofstra (8-1) next Saturday at 7 p.m. at Hempstead, N.Y. The Pride
defeated Towson 11-10 Saturday in Towson, Md. on a goal with just
three seconds left in the game.
