University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Ohio State (NCAA First Round)
Carolina's 10-1 Second-Half Scoring Run Lifts Tar Heels Past Ohio State
May 15, 2004 | Men's Lacrosse
May 15, 2004
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Sixth-ranked North Carolina went on an 10-1 scoring run over a span of 21:46 of the second half Saturday afternoon to storm past eighth-ranked Ohio State 13-6 in the first round of the 2004 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship before 1,529 fans at Fetzer Field. It was Carolina's first NCAA Tournament win since May 22, 1993 and it improved the Tar Heels to 10-4 on the season. Ohio State saw its 2004 campaign end with a mark of 12-4 after back-to-back losses to North Carolina in the past seven days.
UNC advances to the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time since 1996 and the Tar Heels will play No. 1 Johns Hopkins next Saturday at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Va. at a time to be determined -- either 12 noon or 3 p.m. The other quarterfinal match at Scott Stadium will feature Princeton against either Maryland or Army.
Saturday's match was almost a virtual repeat of last Saturday's regular-season finale between the two teams which the Tar Heels won 12-6 at Fetzer Field. Both teams played stubborn defense through the first three quarters before the Tar Heels broke open the game by outscoring the Buckeyes 7-2 in the final 15 minutes.
Carolina outshot Ohio State 49-27 and had a 34-21 edge in ground balls. Tar Heel senior Kevin Frew won 15 of 21 faceoffs, which pushed him into a tie with Jude Collins (1993-96) for the most faceoff victories in UNC lacrosse history at 429. Frew has won a season school record 202 faceoffs this season in 306 attempts and his 130 ground balls lead the nation and equal the second most in a season in Carolina history. Frew had 13 ground balls Saturday. Collins also had 130 ground balls in 1995 and the school record is held by Collins with 160 in 1996.
UNC goalkeeper Paul Spellman was also a key for the Tar Heels Saturday as he made 13 saves while allowing only six goals. He made eight saves in the second half while allowing the Buckeyes to score only three goals after intermission.
Ohio State opened the scoring on a goal by Anthony Gilardi, their leading scorer with 43 points on the season, assisted by Ben Wolff, with 6:59 left in the first quarter. UNC quickly answered that goal as Mike McCall scored the first of his three goals on the afternoon as he made a cut and received a pass from behind the goal from Ryan Blair to tie the game just 43 seconds after Gilardi's goal. UNC took its first lead at 2-1 when junior midfielder Bryant Will scored on a virtually identical play, assisted by Blair, on an extra-man opportunity, at the 4:23 mark of the first quarter. The Buckeyes tied the game before the end of the quarter, however, on a goal by midfielder Josh Wittenburg, assisted by Gilardi.
Neither team produced much offense in the second quarter. Carolina took a 3-2 lead on a goal by senior middie Johnny Seivold, assisted by Will, at 6:12, and OSU equalized with 1:07 left before the half on a hard, high shot by Kyle Olson that got past Spellman.
The Buckeyes had the opening possession of the third quarter and cashed in as Ben Wolff found Craig Nolan unattended in front of the goal for a 4-3 lead with 13:39 left in the period. The game then changed on the stick of UNC's Jed Prossner who started Carolina's 10-1 scoring run with back-to-back goals at 9:43 and 8:19 of the third quarter, both assisted by senior attackman Andrew Lucas. The second goal put UNC up to stay in the game at 5-4. With 2:03 left in the third quarter, Will sent a cross crease pass to Blair who was tip toeing the crease for a putaway just to the right of Ohio State netminder Tony Russo, who finished the game with 14 saves. That goal gave UNC its first two-goal cushion of the contest.
Carolina pushed its lead to three goals at 12:47 of the fourth quarter as junior midfielder Lance Zimmerman claimed a ground ball in front of the goal mouth and sent it past Russo after Mike McCall's initial shot was saved by the OSU goalie. Ohio State came right back to answer that goal as Olson got his second unassisted goal of the day to make it 7-5 UNC with 11:39 left.
From then on it was all Carolina. In fact, UNC ran off six goals in a span of only 5:18 of the clock as its offense kicked it into high gear. Blair started the run with 8:22 to play when he scored on a behind-his-back wraparound after taking a pass from Zimmerman who was set up behind the net. At 7:22, Prossner intercepted an Ohio State clearing pass and fed senior middie Dave Duffy who scored into an empty goal. Just 23 seconds later, McCall scored his second goal of the day, this one unassisted, and it was suddenly 10-5. The Buckeyes for also penalized for an illegal body check on the play and it took just another 19 seconds for Lucas to score his first goal of the contest on the extra-man, assisted by Zimmerman.
Carolina wrapped up the scoring on goals by McCall, assisted by Will, at 4:27, and on a hard sidewinder by sophomore middie Andrew McElduff as he circled across the front of the box at 3:07 of the period.
Russo finished off Ohio State's scoring as the Buckeye netminbder cleared the ball himself and scored on his fellow goalie with 1:51 to play in the match.
UNC will be looking for its first win over Johns Hopkins since the 1994 season when the two play next Saturday. Hopkins has won 10 in a row over the Tar Heels The teams played their regular season meeting on April 3 with Johns Hopkins winning 10-9 at Homewood Field in Baltimore. Each of the last three games in the series have been decided by a single goal.
