University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Colgate
Tar Heels Double Up Red Raiders Behind Blair's Eight-Point Performance
April 20, 2005 | Men's Lacrosse
April 20, 2005
HAMILTON, N.Y. - Playing for the first time in his career in Upstate New York near his Auburn hometown, junior attackman Ryan Blair recorded a career-high eight points as the North Carolina men's lacrosse team defeated Colgate 12-6 at Tyler's Field. Blair equalled his career high with three goals while recording a career-high five assists in the match while both Jed Prossner and Mike McCall scored historic goals for the Tar Heels.
In a game of competing scoring runs, Blair led the Heels to a 7-1 halftime lead as he assisted on the first five UNC goals of the game and then scored the seventh goal of the game. The offensive heroics of Carolina's talented attack trio of Blair, Prossner and McCall propelled North Carolina to its third victory in a row as the Tar Heels improved to 5-7 on the season. The Red Raiders lost for only the second time at home this season and fell to 7-6 with the loss.
With his two goals Wednesday evening, senior attackman Jed Prossner (Easton, Md.) increased his career total 112 and in the process moved passed Mac Ford (111 goals from 1982-85) into second place on the UNC career scoring chart. Only Bert Fett with 128 goals from 1972-75 now stands ahead of Prossner on the all-time goal chart in Tar Heel lore. Senior attackman Mike McCall (Yorktown, N.Y.) scored a pair of goals Wednesday night as well. McCall's second goal, with 5:00 minutes left in the fourth quarter, was the 99th tally of his career and moved him into a tie for eighth place in career goal scoring with Harper Peterson (99 goals from 1968-70).
Blair's eight points broke his previous career high of six he set earlier this season in games against Denver, Duke and Virginia. This marked the sixth time he has scored a career-high three goals in a game and his five assists broke his previous high mark of four against Maryland on March 22, 2003.
The Red Raiders opened the scoring in the game on an unassisted goal by Mark Nemith less than four minutes into the first quarter. Colgate held the lead on the Tar Heels for almost five minutes before Carolina began a seven-goal scoring run to end the half with a 7-1 lead. Blair powered the run by assisting on the first five goals scored by UNC.
The Tar Heels tied the score at 1-1 on a goal by freshman midfielder Rob Driscoll with 6:19 left in the first quarter and senior midfielder Bryant Will gave the Heels the good for lead in the game 1:06 later.
Carolina went on to outscore the Red Raiders 5-0 in the second quarter with Blair assisting on the opening three goals of the quarter. Prossner was the beneficiary of Blair's assist as the senior attackman's back-to-back goals at 12:39 and 9:44 put North Carolina up 4-1. Just 20 seconds after Prossner's second goal, Blair fed McCall for an extra-man goal to make it 5-1.
UNC increased its lead to 7-1 as sophomore Tom Sciolla scored his first goal of the season with 8:05 to play in the period and then Blair went to the goal and scored on his own with 6:48 to go before halftime.
Neither team would dent the scoreboard over the next 15 plus minutes but when Colgate's Matt Lalli scored past UNC goalkeeper Paul Spellman with 6:10 to play in the third quarter to make it 7-2 it sparked a Red Raider run that made things interesting.
Colgate knocked the Tar Heels back in the third period by outshooting UNC 11-4 and claiming 12 ground balls in the quarter to six for UNC. With Carolina leading 7-2, Colgate put the pressure on by scoring three goals in a span of just 2:21 to cut the lead to 7-5 with 17 seconds to play in the third quarter. Brendan Hurley scored with 2:38 left in the period and then Robert Trasolini has the first of his two goals in the game with 1:36 to play in the third quarter to make it 7-4. Matt Lalli's second goal of the third quarter cut the Tar Heel lead to only two goals with 17 seconds left in the period.
Carolina then stemmed the tide on the ensuing face-off as UNC won the draw and wingman Mike Munnelly, a freshman from Garden City, N.Y., scored an unassisted goal with three seconds left in the third period. It was the first goal of Munnelly's college career. Junior attackman Sean Link assisted on Munnelly's goal.
Munnelly's goal sparked a second long UNC scoring run as the Tar Heels ran off five goals in a row to put the game away. With 13:43 to go in the fourth quarter, freshman midfielder Rob Driscoll scored his second goal of the game to put the Tar Heels up 9-5. Wednesday was the first multiple goal game for Driscoll in his freshman season. Just 22 seconds after Driscoll scored, Blair got his second goal of the night as he was fed by junior rope man Billy Staines to make it 10-5. The assist was the second this season for Staines, who also assisted on a goal against UMBC last Saturday. Blair scored another unassisted goal at 6:19 and McCall got his 99th carer tally off an assist by senior midfielder Lance Zimmerman with exactly five minutes on the clock. Robert Trasolini finished off the scoring for Colgate with 11 seconds to play.
Paul Spellman played 55:17 in goal for the Tar Heels and made six saves while allowing five goals. Trey Sheain finished up in goal for UNC. Andrew Jarolimek played the whole way for the Red Raiders and had six saves while allowing 12 goals.
Carolina outshot the Red Raiders 42-21 and Colgate led in ground balls 32-29 and in face-offs 13-9.
UNC will be idle until it plays in the 2005 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament semifinals on Friday, April 29 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md. The Tar Heels will be seeded against No. 2-ranked Duke in the first of the two semifinal games at 6 p.m. with fourth-ranked Virginia meeting 10th-ranked Maryland in the second game at 8:30 p.m.
UNC 2 5 1 4--12
Colgate 1 0 4 1--6
North Carolina SCORING:
GOALS: Ryan Blair 3; Rob Driscoll 2; Jed Prossner 2; Mike McCall 2; Bryant Will 1; Mike Munnelly 1; Tom Sciolla 1.
ASSISTS: Ryan Blair 5; Billy Staines 1; Lance Zimmerman 1.
Colgate SCORING:
GOALS: Robert Trasolini 2; Matt Lalli 2; Brendan Hurley 1; Mark Newmith 1.
ASSISTS: None.
Shots by period 1 2 3 4 Tot
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North Carolina...... 10 16 4 12 - 42
Colgate............. 3 3 11 4 - 21
Ground balls by prd 1 2 3 4 Tot
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North Carolina...... 5 9 6 9 - 29
Colgate............. 6 9 12 5 - 32
Face-offs by prd 1 2 3 4 Total
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North Carolina...... 2-4 1-6 2-6 4-6 - 9-22
Colgate............. 2-4 5-6 4-6 2-6 - 13-22
Clears by period 1 2 3 4 Total
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North Carolina...... 3-3 6-7 3-5 6-6 - 18-21
Colgate............. 3-3 2-2 5-5 4-5 - 14-15
Extra-man opps 1 2 3 4 Total
----------------------------------------------------
North Carolina...... 0-0 1-1 0-0 0-1 - 1-2
Colgate............. 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-1 - 0-2
Saves by period 1 2 3 4 Tot
-------------------------------------
North Carolina...... 1 2 3 0 - 6
Colgate............. 2 1 0 3 - 6
