North Carolina
Maryland
North Carolina Falls To Maryland In Men's Lacrosse 13-8
March 22, 2008 | Men's Lacrosse
March 22, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The fourth-ranked University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team suffered its second loss of the 2008 season as ninth-ranked Maryland defeated the fourth-ranked Tar Heels 13-8 at Fetzer Field before a crowd of 2,642. Will Dalton's goal with 8:33 left in the second quarter put the Terrapins ahead for good and they built as much as a seven-goal lead before the Tar Heels staged a rally in the fourth quarter to cut the final margin to 13-8.
Jeff Reynolds led the Terrapins with three goals while Brett Weiss added two goals for a Maryland team that improved to 6-2 on the season and 1-1 in the ACC. Nine of Maryland's goals were unassisted. Ben Hunt led North Carolina with two goals while midfielder Sean Delaney had a goal and two assists for the Tar Heels. Bobby McAuley and had a goal and an assist for the Heels.
The win was Maryland's sixth in a row over the Tar Heels and the 13th in its last 14 meetings with the Tar Heels. UNC will look to bounce back into the win column next Saturday when Carolina plays at No. 6 Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field in Baltimore, Md. The defending NCAA champion Blue Jays have lost their last three games by one goal each to Hofstra, Syracuse and Virginia. UNC will look for its second straight win over the Blue Jays after the Tar Heels beat Hopkins 13-10 last season in Chapel Hill. Carolina will also be seeking its first win at Homewood Field in Baltimore since the 1994 season, an 11-9 triumph.
Carolina had a 2-1 lead in the game midway through the first quarter after goals by Bart Wagner and Bobby McAuley, but Adam Sear and Jeff Reynolds had back-to-back goals 21 seconds apart to put the Terrapins up 3-2 at the end of 15 minutes.
UNC attackman Michael B. Burns scored off an assist by Gavin Petracca 4:43 into the second quarter to tie the score for the last time at 3-3. But goals by Dalton, Max Ritz and Travis Reed staked the Terps to a three-goal advantage at 6-3. The team traded goals in the final two-and-one-half minutes of the second period to make the score 7-4 at the half.
Ben Hunt scored just 1:25 into the second half for UNC, but Carolina was unable to maintain any momentum coming off that goal and the Terps ran off five successive goals, the last by Brett Weiss on a man-up situation with 9:29 to play in the fourth quarter, giving Maryland its largest lead of the match at 12-5. Carolina was able to bounce back with three straight goals from Sean Delaney, Ben Hunt and his younger brother Chris Hunt to make the score 12-8 with 5:19 to play. For Chris Hunt, it was his first goal in a UNC uniform.
Maryland finished off the scoring with a goal by Dan Groot with 4:10 to play in the game.
Maryland outshot the Tar Heels 35-23 and the Terps had a 30-28 edge in ground balls in the game. Carolina had a slight edge in face-offs with 12 wins to 11 for the Terps. The two teams combined for 15 saves. Maryland had three extra-man goals to only one for the Tar Heels. Maryland's ride was particularly effective as it forced the Tar Heels into eight failed clears in 17 attempts.
After playing at Hopkins next Saturday the Tar Heels will be back at Fetzer Field on April 5 as they host Virginia at 4 p.m. in a nationally-televised game on ESPNU. The Cavaliers are 9-0 after an overtime win over Johns Hopkins on Saturday and will be the new No. 1 team in the country after Duke's loss to Georgetown on Saturday. The games with both Hopkins and Virginia shape up as tremendous opportunities to bounce back for the Tar Heels after losing ACC games the past two Saturdays to Duke and Maryland. Hopkins is the defending NCAA champion and Virginia is the last team the Tar Heels beat in ACC play, that win coming in 2004. UNC will look to end a 16-game losing streak to ACC teams in that contest.
