Tar Heels Lose Heartbreaker At Richmond 11-10

Wednesday, March 14

Richmond, VA

6:00 p.m.

North Carolina

6-3

Richmond

4-3

North Carolina

RICHMOND

Justin Anderson had a career high five points for UNC against Richmond Wednesday.

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

March 14, 2018 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score UNC vs. Richmond Box Score & Play by Play

Matt Cunningham leads Carolina with five goals.

By: Dave Lohse

RICHMOND, VA. – The 13^th-ranked University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team rallied from a five-goal deficit in the second half but could not completely climb the mountain, falling at Richmond 11-10 Wednesday night at Robins Stadium.

The Tar Heels, who also lost by a goal to the Spiders last year in Chapel Hill, dropped their third game in a row and now stand 6-3 on the season. Richmond has won back-to-back games and improves to 4-3 on the campaign.

The Tar Heels have 10 days off before playing defending NCAA champion Maryland in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Saturday, March 24 at 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT).

Matt Cunningham had a career high five goals to lead the Tar Heels while Justin Anderson had a career high five points on three goals and two assists. Andy Matthews had a goal and two assists for the Tar Heels while Chris Cloutier had a goal and a helper.

Richmond was led by Layne Collins who had a hat trick while Mitch Goldberg and Mitch Savoca each had two goals. Seven different Spiders scored goals in the game and only three of Richmond's 11 goals were assisted.

UNC outshot the Spiders 39-31 in the game while the Spiders had a 29-27 edge in ground balls. Richmond led in the face-off circle 14-10. Freshman Ryan O'Connell was nine for 17 on face-offs and led the Tar Heels in ground balls with six.

Blake Goodman played the entire 60 minutes in goal for Richmond and made 11 saves. Jack Pezzulla started in goal for UNC and played 27:54. He made three saves and allowed six goals. Alex Bassil came on in goal for the final 32:06 of the game and made six saves while allowing five goals.

The Spiders jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead as Mitch Savoca, Ryan Lanchbury and Layne Collins tallied early goals to build the three-goal cushion with 7:55 elapsed in the period. Carolina got on the scoreboard with a goal by Andy Matthews, assisted by Chris Cloutier, just 18 seconds after the third Richmond tally. Cloutier then scored an unassisted goal with 36 seconds left in the first quarter to cut the Tar Heel deficit to 3-2. With the goal, Cloutier scored in his 29^th successive game dating back to May 14, 2016. He is now tied with Marcus Holman for the longest goal-scoring streak in Tar Heel history at 29 games.

Richmond outscored the Tar Heels 4-1 in the second quarter to take their biggest lead of the game into halftime. Mitch Goldberg, Layne Collins and Eric Haehl scored goals for the Spiders to take a 6-2 lead with 3:06 left in the half. The Tar Heels answered with 2:06 left in the period as Matt Cunningham scored off an assist by Andy Matthews. Richmond responded with an unassisted goal by Layne Collins, his third tally of the game, just 22 seconds before intermission.

After Richmond's Teddy Hatfield scored with 8:42 left in the third quarter to give the Spiders their largest lead of the game at 8-3, the Tar Heels staged a furious rally. UNC scored five of the game's next six goals and a score by Matt Cunningham, assisted by Jack Rowlett, narrowed UNC's gap to 9-8 with 51 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Spiders regained a two-goal lead on a goal by Savoca with three seconds left in the third quarter before Cunningham scored 41 seconds into the fourth quarter, assisted by Anderson. With 10:31 left in the game, Anderson tied the game at 10-10. But Richmond got the game-winner off the stick of Ryan Lee with 8:10 to play in the game. Neither team was able to score again as the Tar Heels turned the ball over on their final two possessions after getting several good looks on goal.