University of North Carolina Athletics
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Navy
North Carolina Upset By Navy In NCAA First Round
May 10, 2008 | Men's Lacrosse
May 10, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Unseeded Navy led for all but 4:21 of the match as the Midshipmen defeated fourth-seeded North Carolina 8-7 Saturday night in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship at Fetzer Field before a crowd of 1,735. The Mids improve to 10-5 on the season and will host either Hofstra or defending NCAA champion Johns Hopkins next Saturday in the NCAA quarterfinals at Annapolis, Md.
North Carolina saw its season end at 8-6 despite three goals by junior attackman Gavin Petracca and two by junior attackman Bart Wagner and 13 saves by junior goalkeeper Grant Zimmerman.
The loss was only the third at home for the Tar Heels in NCAA Tournament history as they fell to 13-3 in NCAA games in Chapel Hill. Carolina is now 10-2 all-time in NCAA games played at Fetzer Field.
Navy's Tim Paul led all scorers with four goals while Nick Mirabito, Gregory Clement, Zack Schroeder and Terence Higgins each scored once for the Mids. Goalkeeper Tommy Phelan had 12 saves in goal while allowing seven goals.
Navy opened the scoring with back-to-back goals by Tim Paul, the only two scores of the opening 15 minutes in the game. UNC scored directly off the second half faceoff as Shane Walterhoefer fed Bart Wagner for a goal to cut Navy's lead to 2-1 just five seconds into the second period.
The Mids answered with back-to-back unassisted goals by Zack Schroeder and Gregory Clement in unsettled situations to boost Navy's lead to 4-1 with 3:33 left in the half. Carolina made a run late in the second quarter to cut Navy's advantage in a single goal by halftime. Gavin Petracca scored 1:52 before halftime to make it 4-2 and Nick Tintle scored an unassisted goal at 54 seconds of the half to make it 4-3.
The Tar Heels pulled even for the only time in the match 34 seconds into the second half on Petracca's second goal of the game. But Navy scored the last three goals of the third quarter to give the Midshipmen the separation they needed from UNC in the long run. Tim Paul had back-to-back tallies off assists by Patrick Moran and Joe Lennon at 12:08 and 8:55 of the quarter. Then Terence Higgins scored an empty-net goal off what was almost a failed clearing attempt by the Mids at 6:39.
Carolina made a run at the Mids in the fourth quarter by outscoring them 3-1. Petracca scored a goal off an assist by Nick Tintle with 13:17 left in the fourth quarter and the Heels then pulled within 7:32 on Wagner's second goal of the game off another assist by Tintle. Navy scored the deciding goal on a failed clear by the Tar Heels with 5:14 left. It was the Mids third goal off a failed clear in the match as Nick Mirabito tallied into the empty net to make it 8-6.
UNC's Ben Hunt scored off an assist by Bart Wagner with 44 seconds to play and Shane Walterhoefer won the ensuing faceoff for the Heels. The Tar Heels got off three shots in the final 23 seconds, two by Ben Hunt and one by Sean Burke but were unable to achieve the equalizer.
Walterhoefer won 13 of 19 faceoffs for the Tar Heels to set the school record for faceoffs won in a career. The junior midfielder from Ellicott City, Md., has now won 454 career faceoffs, breaking the previous record of Kevin Frew which was 446 from 2001-04.
Navy outshot the Tar Heels 41-33 while UNC dominated the faceoff circle 13-6. The key statistic in the game was the clearing game where Navy's ride forced the Tar Heels into 12 failed clears in 26 attempts.
