University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Duke
Tar Heels Fall At No. 3 Duke
March 18, 2006 | Men's Lacrosse
March 18, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. - North Carolina scored the first six goals of the game Saturday afternoon but No. 3-ranked Duke went on an 11-2 run in the final 41:50 of the game to defeat the Tar Heels 11-8 in men's lacrosse action at Koskinen Stadium. Dan Flannery led the Blue Devils with three goals while Ryan Blair paced North Carolina offensively with two goals and three assists.
Duke improved to 6-1 overall and 1-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference before a crowd of 4,031. North Carolina has now lost six in a row and is 2-6 overall and 0-1 in the ACC. In the past two games UNC led No. 9 Hofstra by four goals and No. 3 Duke by six goals in road games but were unable to post a victory in either game.
Three different Tar Heels scored two goals each with Ryan Blair, Nick Tintle and Ryan Walterhoefer each tallying twice. Blair also had three assists and his five-point game was a season-high for the senior from Auburn, N.Y.
Duke was led by Flannery with three goals and an assist while Matt Danowski had two goals and two assists. Zack Greer and Kyle Dowd each had two goals for Duke.
The Tar Heels scored the first six goals of the game in the opening 15:39 of the match as Tintle scored the first two goals, followed by goals by Ryan Blair, Ryan Walterhoefer, Michael Burns and Tom Sciolla. Matt Danowski scored Duke's first goal of the game with 11:50 left in the second quarter to make the score 6-1 but Ryan Walterhoefer scored with 9:15 to play in the half to restore the Tar Heel lead to six goals. UNC would then score only one more goal in the final 39:15 of the match.
After Walterhoefer's second goal of the game, Duke ran off nine goals in succession to take a 10-7 lead with 6:36 left in the game. UNC still led 7-3 at halftime before Duke scored three times in the opening 1:03 of the third quarter to pull within 7-6. The Blue Devils tied the game at 7-7 on a goal by Dan Flannery with 9:59 left in the third quarter. An unassisted goal by Kyle Dowd with 11:16 left in the game gave Duke the lead for good at 8-7.
After Duke led 10-7, Ryan Blair scored an extra-man goal for North Carolina with 3:59 to play to cut Duke's lead to 10-8 but that was as close as the Tar Heels would get.
UNC led in virtually every statistical category. The Tar Heels outshot Duke 34-30, led in ground balls 40-37 and won 14 of 22 face-offs. Grant Zimmerman made eight saves for the Tar Heels while Dan Loftus made 12 saves for Duke including seven in the second half while allowing only one goal.
Carolina's extra-man unit was proficient as it scored four goals on nine opportunities. The Tar Heels came into the game having scored four extra-man goals in the first seven games of the season.
Duke earned one point in the 2005-06 Carlyle Cup standings to pull with 10-8 of the Tar Heels in the all-sports trophy competition sponsored by Carlyle and Company.
Things don't get any easier for North Carolina as the Tar Heels play host to No. 1-ranked Maryland next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Fetzer Field.
The last time the Tar Heels lost six consecutive games in the same season was 1954 when UNC finished the year with an 0-6 record. UNC had a 14-game losing streak over three seasons in 1953, 1954 and 1964. There was a 10-year gap in that losing streak because UNC had no varsity lacrosse program from 1955-63.
