North Carolina
Denver
No. 5 Tar Heels Open Season With 18-12 Victory Over No. 17 Denver
February 26, 2005 | Men's Lacrosse
Feb. 26, 2005
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Senior attackman Mike McCall scored a career-high six goals and senior attackman Jed Prossner tallied five goals, just one shy of his career high, as the No. 5 North Carolina men's lacrosse team opened its 2005 season with an 18-12 shootout victory over No. 17 Denver before 1,248 fans at Fetzer Field. North Carolina has now won its season opener in the past seven campaigns.
North Carolina's 18 goals were the most the Tar Heels have scored against an NCAA Division I opponent since March 13, 1999 when UNC defeated Air Force 18-5 at Air Force Academy, Colo. It was the most goals for Carolina against any opponent since April 26, 2001 when the Heels whipped Pfeiffer, an NCAA Division II team, 26-7 in Chapel Hill at Henry Stadium.
Both teams were amazingly efficient offensively as Carolina wracked up its 18 goals while taking only 33 shots. Denver scored 12 times, led by four goals and an assist by senior attackman Matt Brown. Adam Goodwin added three goals for the Pioneers, who were also playing their season opener. Scott Davidson had a two and two days for Denver.
UNC also got big days from junior attackman Ryan Blair, who had three goals and three assists, and from senior midfielder Bryant Will, who had a goal and three assists. Senior midfielder Lance Zimmerman added a goal and two assists to the Tar Heel cause. Seven different Tar Heels had goals and seven had assists.
Carolina was particularly efficient in the extra-man, scoring on four of five opportunities while the Pioneers cashed in on only one of their four chances. UNC also had a short-handed goal off the stick of Ryan Blair, assisted by freshman Mike Munnelly, late in the third quarter.
McCall's six-goal effort exceeded the four he scored against Fairfield on April 27, 2002 and against Virginia on April 23, 2004. He also had two assists to equal his career best eight points in a game set against Fairfield in 2002. Prossner's five goals were just one short of the six he scored against Notre Dame on March 14, 2004. Blair set his new career standard for points in a game with six, eclipsing the five he had against Maryland on March 22, 2003. He equalled his career high for goals in a game with three, originally set against Air Force on March 11, 2004.
The Tar Heels jumped on top in the game on goals by Prossner and McCall in the first 4:06 and they were never tied or headed although the Pioneers kept the game close through most of the first half. Zimmerman's goal with 37 seconds to play in the first quarter put the Tar Heels up 6-3 at the end of the first 15 minutes but Denver hung tough. Brown's fourth goal of the first half cut the Tar Heel lead to 8-6 with 2:13 left in the opening half but Carolina exploded for three goals in the final 1:53 before intermission to lead 11-6 at halftime. Prossner scored at the 1:53 mark off an assist by Andrew McElduff and then McCall scored thirty seconds later to restore a four-goal lead. McCall then scored again 14 seconds before halftime -- his fifth of the game to set his career high -- off a feed by Blair, his third assist and it was 11-6 at the half.
Denver opened the scoring in the third quarter on a goal by Greer Hanlon but the Tar Heels scored five of the next six goals in the period to take a commanding 16-8 lead at the end of three quarters. Ryan Blair scored back-to-back goals at 3:59 and 2:32, the later short-handed, and then Bryant Will added an unassisted goal at the 53-second mark to give UNC its biggest lead of the game at 16-8.
The Pioneers kept the pressure on in the fourth quarter and scored four of the next five goals, including two by Adam Goodwin, cutting the UNC lead to 17-12 with 2:02 to play. But Carolina finished off the scoring on McCall's sixth goal off a nifty assist by Jed Prossner with 46 seconds left.
Denver outshot the Tar Heels 34-33 and had 34 ground balls to 31 for UNC. The Pioneers won 20 faceoffs to 13 for Carolina. Geoff Snider won 16 of 21 faceoffs for Denver and scooped up 14 ground balls in a monster effort for the Pioneers who play at No. 6 Virginia (2-0 with wins over Drexel and Manhattan) Monday at 3 p.m.
The Tar Heels will be off until next Saturday when they travel to Annapolis, Md. to meet No. 3 Navy, the 2004 NCAA runnerup. The Midshipmen have beaten the Tar Heels in overtime each of the past two seasons. The Mids have opened the 2005 campaign with victories over Providence and Ohio State so far.
