North Carolina
Notre Dame
Prossner, Will Spark No. 9 Tar Heels To 14-11 Road Win Over No. 5 Notre Dame
March 14, 2004 | Men's Lacrosse
March 14, 2004
SOUTH BEND, IND. - Junior attackman Jed Prossner and junior midfielder Bryant Will both recorded career highs for goals scored and points in a game as the No. 9 North Carolina men's lacrosse team defeated No. 5 Notre Dame 14-11 Sunday afternoon in an indoor game at the Loftus Sports Center. Coach John Haus' Tar Heels completed a Spring Break trip by beating three nationally-ranked opponents in six days to improve to 4-1 on the season while the Fighting Irish fell to 1-2 after back-to-back losses to Syracuse and Carolina.
Prossner had six goals and two assists in the game to established career highs for goals (6) and points (8) in a match. Will also had a career high for goals wth three and he added three assists to give him his career high of six points as well. Mike McCall added a pair of goals for UNC and Andrew McElduff had a goal and an assist.
Pat Walsh led the Fighting Irish as he had three goals and three assists. Four other players--Matt Ryan, Brian Hubschmann, Matt Howell and Matt Karweck--each scored two goals for ND.
Carolina was outshot 46-39 in the game but junior goalkeeper Paul Spellman had his third solid game on the road trip as he made 17 saves to stave off all Notre Dame rally attempts. UNC won the ground ball battle 36-28.
The Fighting Irish got on the board first on Walsh's first of three goals just 1:26 into the game but Carolina then ran off five consecutive goals to take a lead the Tar Heels would never relinquish. McCall scored with 11:16 left in the first period, assisted by Will, and then Prossner scored the first of his six tallies with 9:30 left in the first quarter, also assisted by Will, to give Carolina the lead for good.
UNC and Prossner continued to pour things on in the first quarter. Just 32 seconds after Prossner's first goal he scored again, assisted by Johnny Seivold, and then 21 seconds after that McCall scored his second goal, assisted by Prossner to make it 4-1. Prossner scored again for Carolina with 5:50 left in the quarter to make the score 5-1.
Notre Dame fought back with two of the final three goals of the first quarter to cut the Tar Heel lead to 6-3. Brian Hubschmann scored an unassisted goal with 4:28 to play but Prossner had his fourth goal of the first quarter with 1:06 to play and then Matt Howell took a pass from Walsh and scored for Notre Dame with 39 seconds left.
The teams settled down to play some better defense in the second quarter but there was still scoring on both sides. With 8:12 left, Bryant Will scored his first goal of the year, assisted by Ryan Tolson, his first career point, in a man-up situation. Goals by Howell and Hubschmann cut UNC's lead to 7-5 midway through the sec ond quarter but UNC retaliated before halftime as Will scored an unassisted goal with 2:58 left and Scott Falatach got his only goal of the match 39 seconds before halftime.
Notre Dame came out after halftime to again cut Carolina's lead to two goals. Karweck had back-to-back goals for the Fighting Irish, the first a man-up goal, to make the score 9-7 with 7:13 left in the third quarter. But Prossner answered Karweck's second goal with an unassisted goal just 19 seconds left to make it 10-7 and sophomore midfielder Kyle Henderson scored his first career goal with 2:20 left in the period to make it 11-7.
Notre Dame never fully went away and goals by Walsh and Matt Ryan in the first 1:35 of the fourth quarter cut the UNC lead to 11-9. But sophomore Andrew McElduff scored his second goal of the year, assisted by Will, with 8:58 to play to give the Tar Heels some breating room. Notre Dame responded with a Walsh's third goal to make the score 12-10 with 6:40 to play. Then Carolina put the game away for good, thanks again to Prossner. Prossner got his sixth goal of the contest with 5:42 to play and then he had the assist on Will's third goal of the game with 2:02 to play to make the score 14-10. Ryan finished the scoring for Notre Dame with 1:36 to play.
oth teams won 14 faceoffs on the day. Stewart Crosland finished with 14 saves and 14 goals allowed for the Fighting Irish.
UNC will play its fourth successive road game when it meets No. 8 Duke next Saturday at 1 p.m. in Durham, N.C.
