North Carolina
Vermont
No. 11 Carolina Gradually Pulls Away From Vermont
March 13, 2007 | Men's Lacrosse
March 13, 2007
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Freshman attackman Gavin Petracca exploded for five goals and an assist and North Carolina's attack unit accounted for all 13 goals as the No. 11 North Carolina's men's lacrosse team defeated Vermont 13-6 Tuesday afternoon at Fetzer Field. The Catamounts (2-2) hung around until late in the third quarter before the Tar Heels ran off the final four goals of the game for the final seven-goal margin. UNC improved to 6-1 on the season heading into an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup against No. 5 Duke Saturday at 12 noon at Fetzer Field.
Carolina's defense was smothering all afternoon and statistically the Tar Heels held a huge edge in virtually every category. But 18 saves by Vermont's Daryl Swarts was a key in the game never really getting out of hand in the Tar Heels' favor. Swarts thwarted UNC repeatedly in the second and third quarters with six and seven saves, respectively.
Petracca had his high-point game as a Tar Heel with six points on five goals and an assist while sophomore attackman Bart Wagner was the main feeder Tuesday, finishing with a goal and a career-high four assists. Sophomore attackman Michael Burns also had a big day with three goals and one assist. A pair of freshmen -- Sean Delaney and Kevin Federico -- each added two goals for UNC. All 13 goals came from the Tar Heel attack and seven of the nine assists were also from the attack unit.
Carolina outshot the Catamounts 51-23 and had a 50-31 edge in ground balls. UNC also won 16 of the 22 face-offs in the game. UNC committed only 13 turnovers and failed on only two clears. The Tar Heel ride was effective, forcing 10 failed clears by Vermont.
Pete Hein led the Catamounts with three goals while Andrew Kelleher had a pair of goals for Vermont. Andrew Pierson had two assists for Vermont.
Shane Walterhoefer won 15 of 21 face-offs for UNC and led the Tar Heels with nine ground balls. Both Bart Wagner and Ben Staines finished with four ground balls. Dan Zwirko led the Catamounts with five ground balls.
After a failed clear by Carolina to start the game, Pete Hein struck for an unassisted goal to give Vermont's its only lead of the game at 1-0 at the 12:33 mark of the first quarter. UNC's starting attack trio of Burns, Wagner and Petracca then scored the next three goals of the game to give the Heels the lead for good. Burns tied the game off an assist by Brian Connors with 8:53 left in the first quarter and 35 seconds later Wagner was assisted by Burns to give the Heels the lead the rest of the way.
After Petracca scored an unassisted goal, Alex Young scored a man-up goal for Vermont with 4:18 left in the first quarter to make the score 3-2 but Carolina responded with a four-goal run to build a healthy 7-2 lead with 10:09 left in the second quarter. Petracca scored twice in the run and assisted on another goal and Wagner had assists on both of Petracca's scores. Burns and Delaney also scored with Delaney's unassisted goal making the score 7-2.
Vermont rallied though, with back-to-back goals scored by Andrew Kelleher with assists by Andrew Pierson, and UNC's lead was down to 7-4 with 4:39 left in the half. Carolina had to kill off one-minute penalties on Kerry McCormick and Bart Wagner in the final five minutes of the first half to make sure the Catamounts came no closer.
After the Heels did not convert on an extra-man to open the third quarter, Carolina's defense held and goals by Petracca and Federico boosted the Tar Heel lead to 9-4. Wagner and Ben Hunt had the assists with Federico's goal coming with 8:57 left in the third quarter. But Vermont was in a never-say-die mode all day and Pete Hein came back to give the Catamounts a boost with a pair of goals, the second cutting the lead to 9-6 with 2:57 left in the third quarter. That goal was Vermont's second extra-man goal of the game.
Petracca then made the play that somewhat sealed the deal for the Heels. With virtually no space to work in the freshman from Manhasset, N.Y. rolled the crease on the right and stuck one by Swarts to give the Heels a four-goal cushion less than a minute after Hein's second goal. The athletic goal by Petracca shifted the momentum back in Carolina's favor.
With a little extra margin to work with entering the final quarter UNC scored three times in the first eight minutes of the period and then played substitutes the rest of the way. Everyone in uniform except goalkeeper Andrew Moss saw time in the contest while the Catamounts also subbed liberally at the end as well.
Fourth quarter goals came from Burns, Federico and Delaney with Wagner earning his fourth assist on the Burns goal. Matthias McCall had an assist on Delaney's goal with 7:08 to play that closed out the scoring.
The five goals and six points by Petracca and the four assists by Wagner were career highs. Burns also equaled his career high with his three goals and Delaney and Federico each had their first two-goal games. The two goals were the first of Federico's career.
Carolina will play host to No. 5 Duke Saturday at 12 noon at Fetzer Field in the UNC ACC opener.
