North Carolina
Duke
Rich's Overtime Goal Caps Wild Finish In Carolina's Win Over Duke
September 24, 2009 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 24, 2009
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Freshman forward Alyssa Rich of Cincinnati, Ohio scored on a rebound with 3:01 left in the first overtime period Thursday night to lift the No. 1-ranked University of North Carolina women's soccer team to a 2-1 victory over arch rival Duke before a crowd of 2,428 fans at Fetzer Field. Rich's goal capped a wild finish in the game which saw all three goals come in the final 14 minutes of play after the teams had played scoreless soccer through the first 83 plus minutes.
With the victory, the Tar Heels earned the point for women's soccer in the 2009-10 Carlyle Cup competition. The Carlyle Cup is awarded annually to the all-sports winner between Carolina and Duke based on head-to-head competition in 24 different varsity sports. The women's soccer win puts the Tar Heels up 2-0 in this year's race after the UNC men's soccer team earned the first point of the year by beating Duke 2-1 last Friday at Fetzer Field. The Carlyle Cup is sponsored by Carlyle & Co.
The game was a classic hard-fought contest between the rival schools located only eight miles apart. Despite having a 21-6 edge in shots and an 11-3 edge in corner kicks, the Tar Heels needed 96 minutes and 59 seconds before finally being able to put the Blue Devils away. UNC improved to 8-0-1 on the season with the win and is 1-0 in the ACC. Duke fell to 4-4-2 overall and 0-1 in the ACC. This is the seventh straight year in which the Tar Heels have won their ACC opener. The last time Carolina lost its opening conference game of the season was October 10, 2002 when NC State beat UNC 2-1 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.
Because of injuries and National Team commitments the Tar Heels started the game with an unusual starting lineup as three players made their first career starts and another made only her second. Hannah Daly started in goal for the Tar Heels, subbing for Ashlyn Harris who is away training with the U.S. National Team in Carson, Calif. Sophomore Emmalie Pfankuch made her first career start and freshman Amber Brooks only her second in the midfield in relief of Tobin Heath, who is with the U.S. National Team in California, and Nikki Washington, who is out for the season after suffering a torn ACL in UNC's win over LSU last Friday. Freshman Alyssa Rich started for the Tar Heels at forward in relief of Courtney Jones, who has been bothered by a hamstring injury. It was Rich's first career start but Jones was able to come off the bench and give the Tar Heels a productive 30 minutes after halftime.
In the first 45 minutes neither team was able to gain much traction. Neither squad was able to generate a tremendous chance to score although Daly was forced to make two saves for Carolina and Tara Campbell one stop for Duke. The Tar Heels outshot the Blue Devils 5-3 in the opening half while the Blue Devils had the only corner kick of the period.
The game heated up significantly after halftime. Jones started the second half for the Tar Heels in lieu of Rich and within the first few seconds she was able to earn the Tar Heels a corner kick after a defender had to knock the ball over the end line as Jones made a strong individual run at the goal. The corner kick by UNC's Whitney Engen was pinged around the box by both teams before Engen herself regained control about 25 yards out up top. She drove a ball which hit the cross bar on the upper right side of the frame. The ball bounded out to Ali Hawkins who had a great look herself at about the 12-yard line but her shot was blocked out of harm's way by the Duke defense.
UNC continued to put pressure on the Duke defense, earning corner kick after corner kick but being unable to convert. The Tar Heels had five corner kicks in a span of 5:20 from the 56th through 62nd minutes but came away empty every time.
Casey Nogueira started to put some pressure on the Duke defense as she launched a couple of long range shots on which Campbell had to make tricky saves at the 61:30 and 62:54 junctions of the match. Rich came on in relief of Jessica McDonald in the 64th minute and less than five minutes later had her first shot of the match, but sent it wide left. Duke's Elisabeth Redmond, who finished with two of Duke's four shots on goal, tested Daly at the 76:53 mark but the Tar Heel freshman made her third save of the match to keep the game scoreless.
The Tar Heels had another three corner kicks in a span of less than a minute in the 78th minute but could not stick one in the back of the net as Nogueira's shot after the third corner went wide left at 78:06 of the match. UNC's 10th corner kick of the half came off the foot of Hawkins from the right side in the 81st minute and redshirt sophomore midfielder Maria Lubrano had a great look at the far post only to see her point blank shot be kicked away at the last second by Campbell.
Less than three minutes later, the Heels would finally break through on their 11th and final corner kick of the second half. Hawkins' corner found Lubrano again and the High Point, N.C. native proceeded to bang her first shot off the cross bar but the rebound came right to her and she did not miss on her second opportunity. Lubrano deposited the ball into the net past Campbell for her first career goal at the 83:06 mark, giving the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead.
At the time, Lubrano's goal appeared to be enough to give the Tar Heels the victory since UNC's defense had not allowed a goal since the season opener against UCLA on August 22. But Duke would not go away and the Blue Devils scored on their sixth and final shot of the match with 1:06 left in regulation. Jane Alukonis fed the ball to Cody Newman on the left side of the pitch. Newman's cross was perfect as it found the head of KayAnne Gummersall, who made a perfect run into the box, to head the shot inside the left post for her sixth goal of the campaign.
The Duke goal broke a span of 742 minutes and 15 seconds since the Tar Heels had last been scored upon. Gummersall's goal was the first surrendered by UNC since Sydney Leroux of UCLA scored at the 86:39 mark of the match between the Bruins and the Tar Heels on August 22 of this year. The goal is also only the fourth allowed by the Carolina defense, spearheaded by starting defenders Kristi Eveland, Whitney Engen and Rachel Givan, over the past 1,790 minutes and 14 seconds dating back to a 2-2 tie with Florida State on October 30, 2008.
With the game headed to overtime, Tar Heel head coach Anson Dorrance sent out Rich, Jones and Nogueira to start the extra period at forward for Carolina. Rich had a great opportunity to end the game at the 92:31 mark as she got behind the Duke defense for a one-on-one opportunity with Campbell only to see her shot go wide right. After both teams made substitutions at the 96:01 mark, it was Nogueira, the consensus 2008 National Player of the Year, who combined with the freshman Rich to produce the magic that ended the game. Nogueira was able to gain possession of the ball around 35 yards from the goal but Duke had numbers back and the chance initially did not look all that dangerous. But with a couple of dribbles Nogueira was able to get just enough of an opening to fire a laser directly at Campbell from about 25 yards away. Campbell was able to knock down Nogueira's shot but the ball with hit with so much velocity she was unable to corral it. The ball squirted out to the 12-yard line where Rich was hustling all the way, beating the entire Duke defense to the rebound. This time, she didn't miss, powering her shot into the right side of the goal and setting off a wild celebration by the Tar Heel players and the partisan crowd.
The Tar Heels have little time to celebrate this victory as No. 7-ranked Wake Forest visits Fetzer Field for a 5 p.m. game on Sunday. The game will be nationally televised on the Fox Soccer Channel live. Wake is 8-1 overall and 0-0 in the ACC.
