University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Ohio State
Tar Heels Hold Off Buckeyes To Improve To 9-4
April 11, 2009 | Men's Lacrosse
April 11, 2009
BALTIMORE, MD. - Sophomore attackman Billy Bitter led the Tar Heels with four goals and an assist and senior midfielder Bobby McAuley had a career-high three assists Saturday afternoon as the 10th-ranked University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team outlasted tenacious Ohio State 12-11 on Kelly Field at Calvert Hall College High School in Baltimore, Md. Freshman goalkeeper James Petracca earned the win in his first career start, making 13 saves and scooping up four ground balls while going the whole 60 minutes in the cage.
It was the fourth straight game involving the Tar Heels which has been decided by only one goal and UNC is now 3-2 overall in one-goal decisions this year after having gone 1-7 in its previous eight one-goal matches heading into this season.
Besides Bitter, the Tar Heels got two goals and an assist from senior attackman Bart Wagner, two goals from junior midfielder Sean Burke and single goals from freshman midfielder Jimmy Dunster, junior midfielder Sean Delaney, freshman long-stick midfielder Mark Staines and redshirt junior attackman Gavin Petracca. McAuley had a trio of assists and sophomore short-stick defensive midfielder Chris Hunt and freshman Thomas Wood had one assist each.
All those Tar Heel goals and assists were needed to overcome a brilliant performance by Ohio State's Joel Dalgarno who had five goals and two assists for seven points for the Buckeyes. James Green had two goals for the Buckeyes while Jeff Ryan, Doug Ruhnke, Dan Bain and Mario Ventiquattro added single goals for OSU. Ryan and Andrew Stimmel added assists for the defending Great Western Lacrosse League regular-season champions.
With the win, UNC improved to 9-4 on the season and it has already exceeded its win total of last season when the Tar Heels finished 8-6. Ohio State fell to 6-5 with the loss. The game marked a head coaching matchup of UNC's Joe Breschi and his former chief assistant at OSU, Nick Myers, who took over for Breschi in Columbus after Breschi left for Chapel Hill last June. Breschi had coached the Buckeyes for 11 seasons.
The win by the Tar Heels also avenged a 14-11 loss to the Buckeyes last year when Breschi was the Buckeyes' head coach.
UNC outshot the Buckeyes 43-40 and for the 13th time in 13 games this season UNC won the ground ball battle at 48-30. Face-off man Shane Walterhoefer led the Tar Heels with 11 ground balls and he dominated the X, winning 17 of the 25 face-offs in the game. Sophomore short-stick defensive midfielder Chris Hunt had seven ground balls for the Tar Heels and added his second career assist in the process. Junior defenseman Ryan Flanagan had five ground balls and five caused turnovers for Carolina and freshman long-stick defensive midfielder Mark Staines had his second career goal as well as four ground balls, including the one which clinched the game for UNC.
Walterhoefer won 17 face-offs in the match and he now has 17 career games in which he has won 15 or more face-offs in a game. Walterhoefer has now won 642 face-offs in his career and 345 ground balls. On Saturday, Walterhoefer moved into 11th in career ground balls in NCAA Division I history. He ranks fourth in NCAA Division I history in face-offs won with 642.
Brandon Freeman went all the way in goal for OSU and made 10 saves while allowing 12 goals. UNC freshman James Petracca made his first career start, replacing the injured senior Grant Zimmerman who went down with a knee injury a week ago against Virginia. Petracca made 13 saves while allowing 11 goals. He also had four ground balls.
Turnovers were a problem for both teams as UNC committed 21, including three failed clears, and OSU had 17 turnovers, including seven failed clears.
Dalgarno was on fire for the Buckeyes both early and late, scoring three first-quarter goals and two late in the fourth quarter as OSU staged a furious rally after UNC had gone up by four goals with less than four minutes to play. Dalgarno opened the scoring with an unassisted goal on a drive from the right side at 12:43 of the first period. Carolina tied the game just 1:10 later on a transition goal by Mark Staines, a long-stick middie, off an assist by Chris Hunt, who recorded his second career assist. Hunt forced a turnover by James Green on an OSU clearing attempt and then scooped up the ground ball before feeding Staines, who scored his second career goal on a shot just to the left of the crease area.
OSU went back up 2-1 on a Dalgarno goal at 9:22 of the opening period off an assist by Jeff Ryan. Freshman Jimmy Dunster then beat Freeman with a shot at 4:14 to tie things up again, firing from 10 yards out in front of the goal mouth. Dalgarno then answered with an unassisted goal, his third in less than 12 minutes, with 3:01 left in the period.
The Tar Heels then went on a four-goal run bridging the first and second quarters to take a 6-3 lead in the contest. Sean Delaney threaded the needle for a game-tying goal with 19 seconds left in the opening period. Dalgarno came very close to putting the Buckeyes back up with six seconds left in the period but Petracca got just enough of the shot to knock it down and Michael Jarvis scooped it off the goal line just inches before it went in.
UNC ran off three straight tallies to start the second quarter. After Billy Bitter missed a shot wide, Bart Wagner scored on the crease after claiming a ground ball off Bitter's shot at 14:21 of the second quarter. On the next possession, Sean Burke took a skip pass over the top of the zone defense from Bobby McAuley and scored on an outside rocket at 13:37 of the frame. The four-goal run was capped by a fast break goal at 9:21 with Wagner assisting Petracca on the score. After a turnover by James Green, the Buckeyes went into a 10-man ride but the Heels broke it easily, leading to a nifty set of passes which resulted in Petracca's goal.
The Buckeyes fought back with the next two goals of the half. Doug Ruhnke scored unassisted with 8:38 left in the period before Ventiquattro scored coming out of an Ohio State timeout at 4:09 of the quarter.
Billy Bitter restored UNC's two-goal lead when he scored off the second assist of the second quarter off the stick of senior Bobby McAuley with 1:30 to go before intermission. For the second straight quarter, Petracca turned a scoring chance off Dalgarno's stick away with a save in the final seconds.
OSU came out and stuck the first goal of the second half as James Green tallied at 11:57. On the play, Jarvis was whistled for an unnecessary roughness foul, giving the Buckeyes a one-minute extra-man opportunity. Petracca made a save on a shot by Ventiquattro's shot 19 seconds into the EMO chance to keep the lead in UNC's hands at 7-6.
The Tar Heels then got the next two goals. Bitter scored on the crease at 10:16 off McAuley's third assist of the contest and Bitter scored again, this time unassisted, at 2:58 to break a seven-minute, 18-second scoring drought by both teams.
OSU answered with a goal by Jeff Ryan 40 seconds after Bitter put the Heels up 9-6 but Sean Burke retaliated with second goal of the game, scorching the net at 1:14 of the period to put the Heels up 10-7.
OSU started the final quarter a man-up after a holding call against McAuley with one second left in the third quarter. The Buckeyes took advantage with an extra-man tally by James Green at 14:47. UNC then scored man-up goal of its own as Bart Wagner quick-sticked a pass from Bitter into the net just 14 seconds into the EMO to make the score 11-8 with 11:37 to play. Carolina continued to attack the goal, launching nine shots in a span of 2:55 from 8:35 to 5:40 on the clock, but coming up dry in the scoring column.
Persistence paid off for the Tar Heels as they ended a 7:48 span without a score by either team as Bitter got his fourth score of the game, assisted by freshman Thomas Wood to make it 12-8 with 3:49 to play. Wood sent a crossfield pass from the right side and Bitter finished with a bounce shot into the upper right part of the net.
The game was hardly over, however, as the Buckeyes won two success face-offs and got goals from Dalgarno and Dan Bain only 28 seconds apart to make the Tar Heel margin just 12-10 with 2:43 to play.
The Tar Heels took a timeout but the Buckeyes won the ensuing face-off. Petracca made a brilliant stop on a point-blank shot by Ruhnke with 2:07 to play to keep the margin at two.
After a flurry of turnovers, ground balls and failed clears by both teams over a span of just over a minute, Ohio State got possession with 19 seconds left and called timeout. Out of the timeout, Dalgarno drove the right alley to score with 14 seconds left, narrowing the UNC lead to a mere 12-11 margin.
Fortunately UNC won the final face-off, Walterhoefer's 17th win of the day with Walterhoefer claiming the initial ground ball and after it was checked out of his stick freshman Mark Staines earned the crucial ground ball with three seconds left to run out the clock.
The Heels will now have seven days before meeting seventh-ranked Hofstra (9-1) next Saturday at 7 p.m. in James Shuart Stadium at Hempstead, N.Y. The Pride defeated Towson 11-10 Saturday in Towson, Md. on a goal with just three seconds left in the game.
