University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Maryland
Spellman, Garrison Power Tar Heels To Upset Of No. 2 Maryland
March 22, 2003 | Men's Lacrosse
March 22, 2003
COLLEGE PARK, MD. - Sophomore goalkeeper Paul Spellman made a career high 25 saves and senior midfielder Austin Garrison led North Carolina offensively with four goals and an assist as the No. 13 Tar Heel men's lacrosse team whipped No. 2 Maryland 10-6 before 2,182 fans at Byrd Stadium Saturday afternoon.
The win by Carolina broke a seven-game losing streak to the Terrapins. The last time the Tar Heels defeated the Terps was March 23, 1996 when Jason Wade's school record eight goals led a sixth-ranked UNC team past the No. 3 Terps 17-16 in Chapel Hill. The last time the Tar Heels beat a team as highly ranked as the Terps was April 14, 1999 when a 15th-ranked UNC team beat a Duke team ranked No. 2 by a 10-9 score in Durham, N.C.
That seemed like ancient history until Saturday when Garrison scored the first three goals of the game to give the Tar Heels a lead they would never relinquish. The victory was Carolina's fourth in a row over the last 11 days and it improved the Tar Heels to 5-2 overall and 2-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. It was Carolina's fourth win in the last eight games against ACC teams after the Heels went through a stretch of going 1-19 in the previous 20 matches against conference foes. Maryland suffered its first loss of the season as the Terps are now 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the ACC.
esides Garrison, who equaled his career high for points in a game with five, the Heels were led offensively by freshman attackman Ryan Blair who had a career high five points on one goal and four assists as well as sophomore attackman Mike McCall and sophomore midfielder Bryant Will with two goals apiece and senior midfielder Kyle Bell with a goal and two assists. The Terps were led by Joe Walters who had a pair of goals and by Mike Mollot who had a goal and two assists.
"I think we feel good about the fact we have put together back to back quality wins against two nationally ranked teams and also had two of the best weeks we've had in lacrosse at the University of North Carolina in a long time," said Tar Heel head coach John Haus, in his third season as head coach at his alma mater."Paul Spellman was outstanding and our defense did a great job supporting him out front.
"We were able to control the ball offensively the way we wanted to. Austin Garrison, Ryan Blair, Mike McCall, Bryant Will and Kyle Bell all had great games for us but overall it was just a great team win for this outfit."
Carolina, which has now won two ACC matches in the same season for the first time since 1996, got off to a 3-0 on the strength of Garrison's goals at 3:51 of the first quarter, at 10:43 of the second quarter on an extra-man opportunity and again at 10:08 of the second quarter. Maryland, however, would not go away, as Brian Hunt scored with 6:29 left in the second quarter and then Mike Mollot scored just 44 seconds before the half to cut UNC's lead to 3-2 at intermission.
Carolina outshot the Terps 28-15 in the first half but had to settle for the 3-2 lead as Danny McCormick made nine first half saves for Maryland and the Tar Heels were off target on 16 of their 28 first half shots. On the other side, Spellman had nine of his 25 saves in the first half to hold the Terrapins to two first half goals.
Despite being outshot 14-10 in the third quarter, the Tar Heels outscored the Terps 5-2 in the period to take control of the match. McCall scored his first goal of the match just 53 seconds into the period off an assist by Blair but that goal was answered just 51 seconds later by Walters of Maryland, who scored on an extra-man situation with an assist by Willy Passavia. But UNC struck back quickly on its own as Kyle Bell scored 42 seconds after Walter's goal to restore a two-goal lead for Carolina.
McCall scored his second goal of the third quarter with 7:31 to play, again assisted by Blair, to make it 6-3 Carolina before Bill McGlone scored an unassisted goal for the Terps with 5:39 left in the period to cut UNC's lead to 6-4.
Carolina then ran off four goals in a row over 10:08 to pull ahead by 10-4. Bryant Will started the scoring run off an assist by Garrison with 2:06 to play in the third quarter and then the Heels followed with three extra-man goals in a row. Blair scored an unassisted goal at 1:26 of the third period and then Will scored his second goal, assisted by Bell, at 14:01 of the fourth quarter and Garrison finished the scoring with his fourth goal off Blair's fourth assist with 6:58 to play in the game.
Maryland answered with the final two goals of the game as Walters got his second goal of the game with 5:59 left in the fourth quarter and Ryan Moran scored with 3:47 to play. Both of those Terrapin goals were assisted by Mollot.
Spellman had his work cut out for his in the second half as the Terps outshot the Tar Heels 32-14 in the second half despite UNC's 7-4 scoring margin in the final 30 minutes. Spellman made eight saves each in the third and fourth quarters to keep the Tar Heels ahead in the contest.
Maryland finished with a 47-42 shot advantage while Carolina won the ground balls by a slight 32-30 margin. UNC held a decided advantage in the faceoff circle as UNC won 15 of 21 with junior Kevin Frew winning eight of 11 and sophomore Paul Burnett six of nine.
UNC also did better in its extra-man chances as the Tar Heels scored four goals in six man up situations and Maryland scored only once on five extra mans.
oth teams will face difficult assignments again next Saturday as the Tar Heels play host to No. 4 Johns Hopkins at Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill at 1 p.m. and the Terps travel to Charlottesville to face the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers at Klockner Stadium.
