Lax is now 4-0 and have its 400th overall win

GK Chris Madalon (TarHeelBlue.com)

I would say that if you had asked head coach Joe Breschi if his Tar Heel Lax team would be 3-0 to begin the season he would have said “yes”. However if you had said “about 4-0″ knowing the fourth game of the season would be against Navy at their stadium I am not so sure that coach Breschi would have said “yes”. However, for fourth ranked North Carolina (4-0) the fourth win came against #16 Navy (1-2) by the final score of 11-4 in front of a hostile crowd that numbered 1,461. What was even more impressive, reading the recap on the official UNC Athletics web site, is that the Heels got off to a 6-0 start at Annapolis and never looked back in this one. And it all started with Navy doing the one thing no coach likes to have happen, give up late goals.

Navy did that just, not once, but twice, in the first quarter, letting RS senior attackman Gavin Petracca, who had 2 in this game to go with 5 assists, score with less than a minute to go and then allowing senior middi Sean DeLaney (3 goals – 1 assist) double them up with one tick left of on the clock. Carolina would score four more times in the second, and then allowed a goal in the last seconds of the quarter (6-1). In the second half UNC would score four more times before Navy would find the back of the Heels’ net again (10-2), but the third quarter would finish with a last minute goal by the Heels making it 11-2 with just fifteen minutes to go. In that last quarter the only goals would be by Navy, making the final 11-4, and getting Carolina to a 4-0 start and give the program its 400th win. True frosh attackman Marcus Holman led the squad with four scores, while sophomore attackman Thomas Wood had the other two goals for Carolina. On the defensive side, RS junior goalkeeper Chris Madalon had a career high 13 saves in this game.

The Tar Heels led in most categories, out shooting Navy by 43 to 26, losing the ground balls to the Midshipmen 38 to 36 and losing the face offs 11 to 5. The extra man possessions were overwhelming for Carolina, who went 3 for 5, while Navy only went 1 for 4, while the TOs was also all for the Heels, who won that 24 to 13.

The Heels have over a week off before taking on #20 UMBC on Saturday, March 6 at 12:00 p.m. EST at UMBC Stadium.

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