University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
George Mason
Kneipper's Two Second-Half Goals Lift Tar Heels over George Mason, 2-0
October 22, 2002 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 22, 2002
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Ryan Kneipper's two second-half goals allowed the North Carolina's men's soccer team to defeat a pesky George Mason squad, 2-0, on Tuesday night at Fetzer Field. With the win, Carolina improves to 10-5-0 this season. George Mason falls to 6-4-2. The shutout win was the third of the year for the Tar Heels.
The victory is the 172nd in the UNC head coaching career of Elmar Bolowich, tying him with Anson Dorrance for second place on the school's all-time coaching wins chart. Bolowich, now in his 14th year as the Tar Heel head coach, needs two wins to tie Marvin Allen's school-record 174 wins.
Kneipper scored to give the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead at the 65:30 mark, taking a beautiful pass from Matt Crawford and scoring at point-blank range. Mike Gell also tallied an assist on the play, making a nice pass down the right sideline to Crawford. The assist was the 12th of the season for Crawford, the top figure in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Kneipper added an insurance goal at the 87:47 mark off assists from David Testo and David Stokes. Kneipper now has 32 career goals, tied for fifth in UNC history. He has 11 goals this season, tops among Tar Heels.
The two teams played a scoreless first half without many scoring opportunities. The Tar Heels had their best scoring chance less than 15 seconds into the game when Kneipper crossed the ball to Gell, whose shot was just wide left. Marcus Storey also had a good run on the Patriot goal in the final minute of the first half, passing to Crawford, but Crawford's shot from just over 20 yards out was wide left.
George Mason controlled possession for most of the first 30 minutes of the first half, but missed on its best scoring opportunity when UNC goalkeeper Ford Williams made a leaping save on Danny Climo's free kick from 25 yards out.
The Tar Heels will return to action this weekend when they host No. 1-ranked Wake Forest on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Fetzer Field.
