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North Carolina Opens Season With 14-5 Win Over Ohio State
February 18, 2006 | Men's Lacrosse
Feb. 18, 2006
BALTIMORE, MD. - Led by a dominating defense and the offensive spark of several newcomers, the No. 15-ranked North Carolina men's lacrosse team opened its 2005 season successfully as the Tar Heels routed Ohio State 14-5 at the Calvert Hall College High School lacrosse stadium in Baltimore, Md.
A pair of freshmen attackmen--Bart Wagner and Michael Burns--led the way for North Carolina which improved to 1-0 while Ohio State fell to 0-1 in the Buckeyes' season opener. This was the eighth consecutive season in which the Tar Heels have opened their season with a victory.
Freshmen Michael Burns and Bart Wagner led the way for Carolina with three goals and three assists and three goals and two assists, respectively. Other Tar Heels who were multiple goal scorers were freshman midfielder Bobby McAuley, senior attackman Ryan Blair and sophomore midfielder Nick Tintle who each had two goals. McAuley and Tintle each had one assist as well.
In all, UNC freshmen had eight of UNC's 14 goals and seven of UNC's nine assists in the match.
Carolina outshot the Buckeyes 39-29 and won the ground ball battle in a decisive fashion 45-28. Carolina also won 13 of 23 face-offs.
However, the name of the game for the Tar Heels was defense as UNC limited Ohio State to only two goals through the first three quarters of play. Trailing 11-2 heading into the final quarter, OSU played UNC even at 3-3 in the final 15 minutes with two of Ohio State's final three goals coming in extra-man situations.
UNC's defense not only limited the Buckeyes to five goals, but it also forced 21 OSU turnovers and five Ohio State failed clears.
The match featured a pair of head coaches who were both All-America defenseman at North Carolina. John Haus, an '83 Tar Heel graduate, is in his sixth year as the Tar Heel head coach and he improved his career record to 104-58. Ohio State is coached by Joe Breschi, UNC class of 1990.
UNC junior goalkeeper Trey Sheain made his second career start and played the whole 60 minutes. He made 11 saves while allowing only five goals. Ohio State's Drew May had six saves while allowing 14 goals.
Burns assisted on the first three goals of the game which were scored by Bobby McAuley, Ryan Blair and Bart Wagner, staking the Tar Heels to a 3-0 lead with 14:11 left in the first half. The second of the three goals was a spectacular behind-the-back shot by Blair which he sent past May from a virtually impossible angle.
Nick Tintle got involved on the next two Tar Heel goals as he fed Ryan Blair for his second goal of the game with 4:40 left in the half and then he scored on himself with 3:30 left before halftime to make it 5-0. On UNC's fourth goal Tintle received a clearing pass as an OSU defender closed in on him from the back but Tintle spun past the Buckeye and sped to the goal where he fed the crease allowing Blair an easy putaway.
Bart Wagner scored the second of his three goals of the day, off an assist by fellow UNC novice Bobby McAuley, with 1:24 left in the half. Ohio State won the ensuing face-off and scored 10 seconds later on a goal by Craig Nolan leaving the score 6-1 in favor of UNC at halftime.
The Tar Heels blew the game open by outscoring the Buckeyes 5-1 in the third quarter. Burns and Wagner scored unassisted goals in the first 3:03 of the half. Both goals came off rebounds of Tar Heel shots. Blair hit the pipe on the first try but Burns was there to scoop up the ground ball and score into the unguarded net. On Wagner's goal, he grabbed a ground ball on a long rebound of a Brian Connors' shot saved by May and sent it back into the goal to make the score 8-1.
After an Ohio State goal by Jason Lutz cut the lead to 8-2, Nick Tintle in a man-up situation, Bobby McCauley and senior attackman Sean Link racked up goals in a span of only 1:42 to extend the Carolina lead to 11-2. Link's goal, which came just 12 seconds after McAuley's was assisted by UNC senior face-off man Dave Werry, giving the Oshawa, Ontario native his first career point. Werry won a career high 11 face-offs in the match, going 11 for 17. Werry was one of four Tar Heels with a team-leading six ground balls in the match as UNC won that battle from the Buckeyes 45-28. Close defenseman Hayward Howard, rope Billy Staines and Bart Wagner also had six ground balls in the match. Howard matched his career high for ground balls in a match and Werry and Wagner had their career best totals.
Each team scored three times in the fourth quarter with Michael Burns getting his second and third goals and senior midfielder Kyle Henderson also scoring for North Carolina. Freshman midfielder Shane Walterhoefer assisted on UNC's last goal of the game with 3:20 to play to earn his first career point. Five Tar Heels had their first career points in the match.
The teams traded their six goals in the fourth quarter. Kyle Henderson scored an unassisted goal with 13:08 left in the final period and that goal was matched less than two minutes later on the first of two fourth-quarter goals by OSU's Kevin Buchanan, this one in an extra-man situation. Burns, assisted by Wagner, scored with exactly 10 minutes remaining to extend the Tar Heel lead to 13-3. Three more goals were scored 1:50 apart with Buchanan tallying for the Buckeyes, Burns for UNC and Joel Dalgarno on a man-up chance to finish the scoring with exactly two minutes left.
The Tar Heels will be in action again next weekend when they travel to Denver, Colo., for the Pioneer Face-Off Classic at the University of Denver. UNC plays Air Force next Saturday at 11 a.m. MST and host Denver next Sunday at 1:30 p.m. MST.
