University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
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UNC Moves On To The NCAA Quarterfinals To Face Duke
May 13, 2007 | Men's Lacrosse
May 13, 2007
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Eighth-seeded North Carolina outscored Navy 5-1 in the fourth quarter and utilized a terrific performance by sophomore goalkeeper Grant Zimmerman to defeat the Midshipmen 12-8 in the first-round of the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament Sunday afternoon before 1,615 at Fetzer Field. The Tar Heels advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004 and UNC will play top-seeded Duke for the third time this season next Sunday at 3 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game will be nationally televised by ESPNU.
The win was only Carolina's second in the NCAA Tournament since 1993. The victory broke a five-game losing streak for the Tar Heels against the Midshipmen and it avenged a 19-8 loss to the Mids on March 2 of this season in a game played at Annapolis.
Carolina improved to 10-1 all-time in NCAA Tournament games played on Fetzer Field.
Navy, which went into the game ranked eighth both by Inside Lacrosse and the USILA coaches polls, saw its season end at 11-4. All three previous losses that Navy suffered this year had been by a single goal - against Johns Hopkins, Georgetown and Maryland. North Carolina improved to 10-5 on the season, an amazing turnaround from a 4-10 season of a year ago. The Heels are currently ranked No. 10 by Inside Lacrosse and No. 9 by the USILA coaches polls.
The game Sunday was an intense battle throughout the game and no team ever took more than a one-goal lead until 12:02 remained in the game. Bart Wagner of the Tar Heels scored his second goal of the game at that point, giving the Tar Heels a 9-7 lead. Navy won the ensuing face-off which led to a goal by Terrence Higgins off an assist by Ian Dingman just eight seconds after Wagner's goal. That cut the UNC lead back to 9-8.
Less than a minute later, Tar Heel junior defenseman Brian Burke made the game-changing play for Carolina. Burke scooped up a ground ball on the sideline nearest the grandstand and eluded a pair of Navy players as he tightroped the chalk line. Burke cleared the ball himself into the offensive end and had looks at both Wagner and attackman Michael Burns. But with the defense drawn to the Tar Heel attackmen, Burke let go a searing shot from his long pole which found the back of the net behind Navy goalkeeper Colin Finnegan. The goal, which came with 10:45 left in the game, ignited the crowd and put the momentum back on the side of the Tar Heels.
With the two-goal lead, the Tar Heel defense held firm in the final 10 plus minutes of the game. Navy outshot the Heels 15-10 in the final period, had a 14-10 ground ball edge in the last 15 minutes and won all six face-offs, but Carolina's defense never faltered. Zimmerman made seven of his 12 saves in the final period, frustrating any comeback attempt by the Midshipmen.
With 5:10 remaining, UNC attackman Gavin Petracca found a cutting Sean Delaney 10 yards in front of the net and Delaney ripped a shot into the twine, extending the Tar Heel lead to 11-8. With Zimmerman continuing to stymie the Mids on their offensive end with save after save the Heels put the game away with 2:15 to play as junior midfielder Nick Tintle muscled his way to the goal to make the final margin 12-8.
Carolina had a balanced scoring attack and was very opportunistic, converting in transition and scoring a handful of goals after winning ground balls in unsettled situations. Five times in the game the Tar Heels answered Navy goals after less than a minute of clock time had expired.
During the regular season the Tar Heels recorded assists on 64 percent of their goals but on Sunday great individual efforts led to the 12 goals, only three of which were assisted. For the second straight game, UNC's Michael Burns led the Tar Heels in goal scoring with three. Wagner, Petracca and Delaney each had two goals while Tintle, Burke and Ben Hunt had single tallies. Petracca and Wagner had single assists and junior tri-captain Fletcher Gregory assisted on UNC's third goal of the game, his first career point.
Navy was led by senior midfielder Billy Looney who had three goals and an assist for the Mids. Senior attackman Ian Dingman had two goals and an assist for Navy while junior attackman Nick Mirabito added three assists.
The Mids were the first out of the gate in the scoring column as Basil Daratsos, a freshman middie, scored at the 13:04 mark of the opening period. But as happened five times in the game, UNC would bounce back with a goal less than a minute later. It was sophomore middie Ben Hunt who drove to the goal and scored to tie the game at 1-1 with 12:39 left in the opening period.
Those two goals would open a first 15 minutes that was full of end-to-end action and plenty of scoring.
After a slashing call against Bart Wagner, Navy capitalized to take a 2-1 lead with 10:06 left in the first period as Ian Dingman scored on the extra-man opportunity, assisted by Nick Mirabito. Thirty-six seconds later, the Tar Heels tied the game again as Gavin Petracca scored off an assist by Bart Wagner. It did not stay 2-2 for long as Navy got a Billy Looney unassisted goal at 8:36 of the quarter. UNC came right back and with 7:48 to go in the 15-minute first frame, Michael Burns tallied his first of three goals off an assist by junior midfielder Fletcher Gregory. The assist marked the first career point for UNC's junior tri-captain from Charlotte, N.C.
Navy would take the lead before the end of the quarter on the seventh goal of the game in the first 9:50 of play. Tim Paul had the unassisted goal for the Mids who led 4-3 at the end of the quarter.
The Tar Heels had the first two goals of the second quarter to take their first lead of the game at 5-4. After Brian Connors' shot was saved by Colin Finnegan, Michael Burns was there to claim the ground ball and score on the rebound with 11:30 to play in the quarter, tying the game at 4-4. With 4:46 left before halftime, Carolina seized its first lead of the game on an unassisted goal by Sean Delaney.
Navy was resilient, however, and the Midshipmen bounced back to take the lead before halftime. After Brian Burke was whistled for an illegal body check with 2:56 to play in the first half, Navy got its second extra-man goal of the contest as Billy Looney fed Ian Dingman to tie the game at 5-5. Then with 49 seconds to play before halftime Navy scored again with Looney this time providing the goal on Mirabito's second assist of the game.
Navy took the 6-5 lead into halftime but the first nine minutes of the third quarter proved to be one of the key parts to the game. With the one-goal advantage, the Midshipmen took the first 10 shots of the second half but were unable to add to their lead as shots were off cage or Zimmerman stopped them. In fact, with six minutes to play in the third quarter UNC had as many turnovers as shots in the game with 14 each.
But the scoreboard did not change in that crucial period and Carolina would go on to score six times from that point on and commit only two turnovers in the final 21 minutes. After Brendan Teague of Navy was called for slashing with 3:17 left in the third quarter the Heels did not immediately take advantage. After Navy got a possession and looked to kill the rest of the penalty, the Heels were able to get the ball back and clear it successfully. Gavin Petracca then went one-on-one against his defender on the left of the crease and snuck a shot past Finnegan from close range with two seconds left on the EMO. The game was now tied at 6-6 with 2:19 to play in the period.
Navy retook the lead for the last time with 37 seconds left in the third quarter as Looney scored his third goal of the contest off the third assist by Mirabito. Carolina then won the following face-off and looked for a shot to tie the game before the end of the period. After a restart with 10 seconds left on the clock, Wagner ran with the ball from the left side goal line extended and scored with four seconds left while being pushed from behind into the crease.
Carolina took the lead for good on a goal by Michael Burns with exactly 13 minutes to play. Wagner scored his second goal 58 seconds later and after Navy cut the lead to 9-8 eight seconds after that the final theatrics were now ready to unfold. Burke's game-changing scoring play, Delaney's insurance goal and Tintle's late-game tally finished off the scoring in the final 10:45 of the contest.
Navy outshot the Tar Heels 43-32. Both teams had 40 ground balls and both teams won 11 face-offs, a marked turnaround from the first game when Navy won the face-off battle 20-10.
Finnegan finished with 10 saves for the Midshipmen while Zimmerman had 12 saves for Carolina.
The Tar Heels now meet No. 1-seeded Duke for the third time in 2007 next Sunday in Annapolis, Md. The Blue Devils won the regular season meeting 9-7 in Chapel Hill after rallying from a 6-1 deficit. In the second meeting in the ACC Tournament semifinals at Durham, N.C., on April 27, Duke led 7-6 late in the third quarter and then ran off six goals in a row in what was eventually a 13-9 Blue Devil win.
