North Carolina
Navy
Sonke's Overtime Goal Keep Men's Lacrosse Squad Unbeaten
March 4, 2000 | Men's Lacrosse
March 4, 2000
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Junior attackman Jeff Sonke scored his fifth goal of the game 1:18 seconds into the first sudden-death overtime period Saturday afternoon to lift the 10th-ranked North Carolina men's lacrosse team to an 11-10 victory over 12th-ranked Navy before 1,297 fans at Fetzer Field. Carolina remained unbeaten with the victory, improving to 3-0 on the season, while the Midshipmen fell to 1-1.
It looked for a while like Sonke, who also had two assists, would never be able to enjoy such notoriety. Navy jumped all over the Tar Heels in the first 20 minutes of the game and led Carolina 7-2 with 10:19 left in the second quarter. At that point in time, the Middies' offense featured seven different goal scorers and Navy was dominating all aspects of play.
But Carolina would hold the Midshipmen scoreless for the next 31:54 of the game while running off seven successive goals to take a 9-7 lead. UNC scored three goals in the final 3:31 of the first half to cut the deficit two two goals at intermission. The Tar Heels then got goals >from Sonke and Chase Martin, who had four goals and two assists, in the last three minutes of the third quarter to tie the game at 7-7.
Goals by Sonke and Martin, who combined for nine of Carolina's 11 goals, staked the Tar Heels to a 9-7 lead early in the fourth quarter but Navy produced a rally of its own. Goals by Chris Roesgen and Nick Lockwood, the latter on an extra-man situation, just 1:08 apart midway through the fourth quarter tied the game again at 9-9.
Freshman midfielder Steven Will gave the Tar Heels the lead again when he scored a spectacular, over-the-shoulder goal with 4:17 remaining. But with UNC trying to kill the clock in the game's last two mninutes, Navy regained possession on a ground ball which started a fast break that resulted in Eddie McKinnon's game-tying goal with 42 seconds left in regulation.
The Midshipmen won the ensuing faceoff and got one shot off on goal with 15 seconds left but the Tar Heel defense did not allow a second shot as the clock ran out. Senior defender Todd Maher made the heads up play in overtime as he darted out of the box after the officials had signaled possession on the overtime faceoff. Maher gained the loose ball, cleared on his own and the Tar Heels kept possession until Martin was double teamed to the left of the goal shortly over a minute into overtime. Martin dumped the ball to the unguarded Sonke, who came around the crease and beat Navy goalkeeper Mickey Jarboe one-on-one for the game winner.
Nick Lockwood led the Navy offense with two goals, while Eddy Holton had one goal and two assists. Four different players had two assists for Carolina--Sonke, Martin, Matt Crofton and Austin Garrison. Jarboe had 13 saves for the Midshipmen, while Kris Blindenbacher had 15 saves for the Tar Heels.
Carolina will play the 17th-ranked Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Fetzer Field. Navy will play Massachusetts next Saturday at 3 p.m. at Piscataway, N.J.
