University of North Carolina Athletics
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Carolina Defense Excels Again In 6-5 Victory At Denver
February 23, 2008 | Men's Lacrosse
Feb. 23, 2008
DENVER, COLO. - The No. 10 North Carolina men's lacrosse team improved to 2-0 on the season with a hard-fought 6-5 victory against the No. 20 University of Denver Pioneers before a capacity crowd of 1,800 at Barton Stadium Saturday afternoon. For the second straight week it was the Tar Heel defense that keyed the victory, holding the Pioneers scoreless for a period of 22:35 from the second through fourth quarters while allowing the offense to score four straight goals and rally the Tar Heels to victory. A week ago, UNC held Bellarmine scoreless for over 48 minutes to finish out a 15-2 triumph over the Knights.
The win avenged an 11-8 loss the Tar Heels suffered on their last trip to the Mile High City in 2006. It also gives Carolina an unbeaten mark as the Heels prepare to host 2007 NCAA semifinalist Cornell next Sunday at 1 p.m. at Fetzer Field.
The 6-5 final decision gave the Tar Heels their first win in a game decided by one goal in almost four years and it broke a streak of five losses UNC had suffered in games decided by a single goal. The last UNC win by one goal was March 20, 2004 when Carolina beat Duke 10-9 at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C.
"This was a big win for our team," said Tar Heel head coach John Haus. "It is very difficult to play at Denver. Denver has a great home field advantage and the crowd today was really amazing. Their fans are enthusiastic. I thought we played pretty good defense but we were a bit too impatient on the offensive end. That being said, I don't think we got rattled. It was still a big win for us, especially given the fact most of travel party didn't even arrive at the hotel until 2 a.m. this morning after our travel delays yesterday."
Both goalkeepers played well in Saturday's defensive struggle. The Tar Heels' Grant Zimmerman made 10 saves and allowed only five goals in 60 minutes while facing 23 Denver shots. Austin Konkel of Denver made 16 saves and allowed six goals in 60 minutes while facing 35 UNC shots.
Other than the Tar Heels' edge in shots, the two teams were statistically pretty even Saturday. Denver had 29 ground balls to 28 for Carolina while the Tar Heels had a nine to six edge in the faceoff circle. Carolina had 26 turnovers to the Pioneers' 22. Both teams scored one extra-man goal.
Gavin Petracca scored two goals for the Tar Heels in the low-scoring encounter while Cryder DiPietro, Sean Delaney, Rob Driscoll and Matthias McCall each had one. Bart Wagner had two assists for the Heels while Billy Bitter and Bobby McAuley each notched one assist.
Jamie Lincoln led Denver with two goals while Brett Koll, Emerson Eichler and Jon Paulson scored once each for the Pioneers. Charley Dickenson had two goals for the Pioneers while Ilija Galic and Kyle Widerstedt each had one.
The Tar Heels had to rally from a 3-1 deficit late in the first half to pull off the victory, their second in a row over Denver after an 11-8 Tar Heel triumph in Chapel Hill last season.
The Pioneers, coming off a 15-5 rout of Colgate last Saturday on Denver's home field, led 2-0 at the end of the first quarter as the Tar Heels were plagued by six turnovers in the opening quarter. Denver's first goal came at 13:01 as Emerson Eichler took a pass from Kyle Widerstedt and scored to make it 1-0. At 3:27, the Pioneers cashed in on a slashing penalty by Cryder DiPietro to score an extra-man goal with Jamie Lincoln converting a pass from Charley Dickenson for a 2-0 lead.
Gavin Petracca cut the Denver lead to 2-1 with 12:34 left in the first half off an assist by Bart Wagner. The Pioneers then regained the momentum when they scored a man-down goal with 1:31 left in the first half as Brett Koll converted a pass from Ilija Galic for the goal that made it 3-1.
Carolina seized a bit of momentum back just 56 seconds before halftime and only 35 seconds after that Denver goal as Cryder DiPietro more than made up for his earlier slashing penalty by scoring a man-up goal off an assist by Bart Wagner.
Carolina tied the game for the first time with 14:09 left in the third quarter on Petracca's second goal of the match. UNC then took its first lead at 4-3 with 54 seconds left in the third quarter as Matthias McCall scored off an assist by Billy Bitter. McCall's goal gave the Tar Heels the lead for good in the match.
UNC scored its fourth goal in a row with 14:18 left in the match with midfielder Rob Driscoll scoring off an assist by fellow middie Bobby McAuley. Denver answered that goal with one by Jon Paulson, assisted by Charley Dickenson, at 9:06 of the fourth quarter. UNC midfielder Sean Delaney put the Heels back up by two with 4:30 left with an unassisted goal. Then, with just 25 seconds left, Jamie Lincoln scored an unassisted goal for the Pioneers after Denver had broken a Tar Heel clear.
UNC's Shane Walterhoefer won the ensuing faceoff against Denver's Ben Wahler. On the play, Wahler was assessed a 30-second delay of game penalty and the Tar Heels took possession and ran out the clock to secure the victory.
Carolina played for the second straight game without three of their top offensive middies - Ben Hunt, Sean Burke and Brian Connors - who are all recovering from injuries.
