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Dartmouth
No. 14 Tar Heels Start 3-0 For First Time Since 2002
February 25, 2007 | Men's Lacrosse
Feb. 25, 2007
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Junior midfielder Nick Tintle had a career high five points, sophomore attackman Michael Burns equaled his career high with three goals and sophomore midfielder Ben Hunt scored a career high three goals as No. 14 North Carolina defeated Dartmouth 12-6 in men's lacrosse action Sunday afternoon at Fetzer Field. The game was played in a constant downpour with temperatures in the low 40s but the conditions did not prevent North Carolina from starting a season 3-0 for the first time since 2002.
A goal by Burns with 7:30 left in the first quarter gave the Tar Heels the lead for good as Carolina finished the weekend 2-0. UNC beat No. 12 Denver 11-8 on Saturday at Fetzer Field. Next up for the Tar Heels is No. 10 Navy Friday night in Annapolis, Md. at 7 p.m. The last time the Heels beat the Midshipmen was 2002 when Carolina last won its opening three games of the season. UNC started 6-0 in 2002 en route to an 8-5 record.
Four Tar Heels struck for multi-goal totals Sunday with Burns scoring three times, Hunt three times, Tintle twice and freshman attackman Gavin Petracca twice. Junior midfielder Rob Driscoll and senior midfielder Tom Sciolla also scored goals as UNC got seven of its 12 goals Sunday from the midfield.
UNC also got an outstanding defensive effort which limited the Big Green (0-2) to four goals in the first 54:40 of the game. Tar Heel junior defenseman Tim Kaiser limited Dartmouth's leading scorer, Nick Bonacci, to two goals and an assist after the Big Green senior attackman had four goals and two assists in Dartmouth's 17-11 loss at Duke on Saturday. Bonacci did not score in Sunday's match until 5:20 remained in the game. Kaiser finished with three caused turnovers and two ground balls.
UNC goalkeeper Grant Zimmerman had an outstanding game as he made 13 saves and allowed only six goals in 60 minutes. Zimmerman also had five ground balls. It was the second successive day in which Zimmerman posted a new career high for saves in a game. He had 12 against Denver Saturday but topped that with 13 against Dartmouth Sunday.
For the second successive game, sophomore midfielder Shane Walterhoefer was dominant in the face-off circle as he won 19 of 21 draws. Walterhoefer's 19 face-off wins equal the second most in a game in UNC history. Todd Oudemool holds the school record with 22 face-off victories against Towson on May 13, 1989. Kevin Frew also won 19 in a match on March 9, 2002 against Delaware.
Walterhoefer also had a career high 13 ground balls which is just two shy of the school record for ground balls in a game. Only five times in UNC lacrosse history has a player had more than 13 ground balls in a match.
Tintle's five points were two more than his previous career high in a game and his three assists were a career high as well. Burns scored three goals in a match for the third time in his career. He also had three against Ohio State on February 18, 2006 and against Air Force on February 25, 2006. Hunt's three goals were a career high for him. He scored two goals in three different games as a freshman in 2006. Sophomore attackman Bart Wagner also tied his career high for assists in a game with three. He also had a trio of assists against Fairfield on April 15, 2006 as well.
UNC opened the scoring with a fast break goal by Gavin Petracca with 10:44 left in the opening quarter. Long-stick defensive midfielder Kerry McCormick had the assist for the freshman's first career point. With 8:07 left in the first quarter Ari Sussman scored the first of his two goals to tie the game, but Burns scored off an assist by Tintle 37 seconds later to give the Tar Heels the lead for good.
Tom Sciolla scored off an assist by Ryan Walterhoefer with 6:01 left in the opening period before Tintle fed Burns for the second time in the opening quarter just 22 seconds later to put the Heels up 4-1. Brian Koch scored an unassisted goal for Dartmouth after a failed clear by the Tar Heels with 3:07 left in the first quarter to cut the lead to 4-2.
Hunt opened up the second period scoring in just 51 seconds after a nice dodging move to make the score 5-2. But Bonacci fed Wilson Handler for an extra-man goal to make the score 5-3 with 12:26 left before the half. The Tar Heel defense then clamped down and limited Dartmouth to only one goal in the next 35:06 of the match.
Goals late in the second quarter by Petracca off an assist by Wagner and by Driscoll off an assist by Brian Connors put the Tar Heels up 7-3 at intermission.
Less than two minutes into the third quarter Tintle seized a loose ball in front of the cage and fired into an empty net to put the Heels up 8-3. Sussman then scored his second unassisted goal for the Big Green with 8:46 left in the third quarter but that was as close as Dartmouth would get the rest of the way.
The Heels scored the next three goals of the game and when Tintle scored an unassisted goal with 8:47 left in the fourth quarter Carolina had its biggest lead at 11-4. Bonacci then scored twice for the Big Green but Hunt finished off the scoring with an assist by Wagner with 2:25 to play, making the final score 12-6.
The Tar Heels outshot the Big Green 52-36 and had a 54-38 edge in ground balls. UNC dominated in the face-off circle, winning 19 of 22 attempts.
