Men’s Lax outscored UMBC 15 to 13
UNC Men's Lacrosse
The first three things that the Tar Heels did in the game against the Retrievers were errors/mistakes. A bad pass right off the start resulted in a turnover, letting a UMBC attacker get past the first line resulted in a desperation push and a 30 seconds penalty against UNC and finally, a UNC defender slipping on the grass of Fetzer Field resulted in a clear shot by a UMBC midfielder, which went into the top right corner of the Heels’ goal. In other words, the first three things in the game resulted in the Heels being down 2 to 1 to the Retreviers. But then, I also saw sophomore forward Billy Bitter (#4 in the picture), who was truly bitter to the UMBC defense, scoring 8 goals on his first eight shots. Thanks in great part to the performance of the underclassman, sixth seed North Carolina (12-5) beat eleventh seed UMBC (12-4) by the final score of 15 to 13.
While the score might be great, the crowd in my opinion is a bit disappointing, as only 1,431 went to Fetzer Field to watch what I consider the world’s fastest sport. Something that both of these teams proved as they went up and down the field looking for the quick goal first and then settling down only if nothing was there. Between Bitter and senior middi Shane Walterhoefer, who went 22 for 31 in the face off battle, the Heels team looked good on offense for most of the game. The two kept making one play after another in order to get their team to a victory and on to the quarter finals next week. And while the score was close, with the Retrievers having the lead at half time and even taking the lead into the fourth quarter, when they kept Carolina from scoring for over 9 minutes, the reality is that for most of the game UNC was the better team on the field.
Joe Breschi, the first year coach at Chapel Hill, got plenty of points by a handful of players, with senior forward Bart Wagner scoring a pair of goals in the game and adding three assists, while freshman middi Jimmy Dunster (plus an assist), junior attacker Gavin Petracca (plus an assist), junior midfielder Cryder DiPietro, senior middi Shane Walterhoefer and senior defenseman Jack Ryan all had one in the game. From the official site of North Carolina Athletics there is the recap of the game, and I found out that this was Ryan’s first ever goal, which is cool, but even cooler, it came on the first shot that defender has taken in his four years at UNC.
There were also plenty of assists to go around, starting with senior mid Bobby McAuley, who had a pair. While junior midfielder Sean Burke, junior midfielder Sean Delaney and sophomore defenseman Milton Lyles all collected one a piece. In the end, as most of the teams that have “Carolina” on the front of their jerseys, this was all about a team effort. But you can not overlook what Bitter did yesterday, scoring eight goals and adding an assist, with the only blemish being that he missed the target on his last shot of the day, going 8 for 9 on the day. With the ones scored in the game against UMBC Bitter is now at 46 goals for the season, just one back of the school record, and with a game coming up against arch rival Duke, you should think he will break that. The forward’s 69 points (goals & assists combined) is third all time in the school’s history.
As far as some of the key stats, the Heels out shot the Retrievers 46 to 35, and only in the fourth quarter were they outshot, when UMBC took 8 to UNC’s 6. As has been the case in every game played by Carolina this year, the Heels won the battle of the ground balls, by a hefty margin of 56 to 37. From the box score I see that eleven players had at least 3 ground balls. Each teams finished with 17 turnovers and they both cleared fairly well with UMBC going 20 for 24 and Carolina 19 for 22. UMBC had the only two extra-man goals of the game (out of three chances). UNC went 0 for 2 in the extra man possessions.
With North Carolina and Duke winning it means they will meet for the third time this season next Sunday in the quarterfinals at Annapolis, Md.’s Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. UNC is going to try and snap a 10 game losing streak against the Blue Devils. The games this season finished with Duke winning at Kenan Stadium 12 to 8 in the regular season and 15 to 13 in the ACC Tourney, also played at Kenan. Can the third time be the charm for Joe Breschi’s club? I surely hope so, and we will find out next weekend.
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