University of North Carolina Athletics
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No. 4 Carolina Downs Navy For 400th Win In School History
February 25, 2010 | Men's Lacrosse
Feb. 25, 2010
ANNAPOLIS, MD.--It was a night for milestones for fourth-ranked North Carolina as the Tar Heels defeated 16th-ranked Navy 11-4 in men's lacrosse action Thursday night at Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Playing before a national TV audience on CBS College Sports Television, the Tar Heels jumped out to a 6-0 lead and led by as many as nine goals at the end of the third quarter.
Redshirt junior goalkeeper Chris Madalon had career-highs with 13 saves and six ground balls while allowing only four goals on 26 shots by the Midshipmen, who fell to 1-2 with the loss. The Tar Heels, who improved to 4-0 for the third straight year, got a career-high four goals by freshman attackman Marcus Holman, a career-high five assists from senior attackman Gavin Petracca, a career-high matching four points by senior midfielder Sean DeLaney while sophomore attackman Thomas Wood chipped in which at least two goals for the fourth straight game, junior attackman Billy Bitter added three assists and senior middie Cryder DiPietro added a pair of assists. Navy had goals from four different players in the game while Patrick Moran had both assists in the game for the Midshipmen.
So adept was the Tar Heel passing game that all 11 goals for the Tar Heels were assisted. Carolina took good care of the ball, turning it over only 13 times and failing on only two clears.
The win was only the fourth in history for Carolina over Navy in Annapolis and the first win for the Tar Heels there since the 2001 season. UNC's defense limited Navy to only four goals, marking the fourth straight opponent the Tar Heels have held to five goals or less. That has never happened before in UNC history. Carolina did hold three successive opponents to five goals or less in 1991.
The victory was also the 400th in school history and the Tar Heels now take the lead in the series with the Midshipmen 13-12.
Overall, the Tar Heels outshot the Naval Academy 43-26 and had a slight edge in ground balls at 38-36. Navy's R.J. Wickham made 14 saves for the Mids while Madalon had 13 for Carolina. Navy had the edge on face-offs 11-5 but UNC had only 13 turnovers compared to 24 for Navy.
Neither team scratched in the first 14 minutes of the game before the Tar Heels stuck two in the back of the twine in the final 49 seconds of the first period. Gavin Petracca, making his first start of the season, took a feed from Cryder DiPietro to give the Tar Heels a lead they would never relinquish with 49 seconds to play in the first quarter. The goal came in an unsettled situation after DiPietro had the ball checked out of his stick. DiPietro recovered and fed DeLaney who returned the ball quickly to DiPietro who then found Petracca cut across the middle for the shot. UNC then made it 2-0 with only one second left in the first quarter as Sean DeLaney took a pass from Petracca and powered a shot by Wickham as time was expiring in the period. It was the first of five assists for Petracca, exceeding his previous career high of four against Denver on February 14, 2009. It was an opportunistic goal by the Tar Heels who had the ball on the end line with only four seconds remaining. But Petracca took it in and fed DeLaney who turned and shot just in time to beat the end of the period.
Excellent play by the Tar Heels allowed them to extend the lead in the second quarter, giving UNC separation from Navy. Billy Bitter would come up big in the second period as he assisted on the first three goals UNC had in the frame as the Tar Heels pulled away to a 5-0 advantage. The period started with an extra-man opportunity for Navy in the opening minute but Madalon made a key save and the Tar Heels killed off the penalty.
Thomas Wood was the first recipient of an assist by Bitter at 12:38. Bitter dodged and moved his feet by the side of the cage before feeding Wood right in front of the crease for the putaway. After the Tar Heels killed off their second penalty of the quarter, freshman Marcus Holman scored his first goal of the game at 8:18 off an assist by Bitter as UNC capitalized in transition. Carolina then struck for two goals in a span of 54 seconds later in the quarter to make it 6-0. Bitter assisted on Petracca's second goal exactly three minutes before halftime. Bitter came around the left side of the cage and looked as if he was going to shoot but instead he fed a wide open Petracca on the right side of the net for the score. At 2:03, Holman scored his second goal off an assist by Sean DeLaney. The senior midfielder dodged multiple defenders at the top of the box before finding Holman open in the middle for another putaway. After a slashing penalty on Tyler Morton, Navy dented the scoreboard for the first time with 16 seconds left in the first half as Evan Sullivan scored an extra-man goal assisted by Patrick Moran.
Carolina did not settle, however, for its five-goal cushion as the Tar Heels came out and outscored the Mids 5-1 in the third quarter, including a three-for-three performance on the extra-man. After an offside penalty on Navy that came at the end of the half, UNC's DeLaney scored 17 seconds into the third stanza on an assist from Petracca to give Carolina its first extra-man goal of the game. DeLaney finished the game with four points, his career high. He has now had four points in a game on six occasions.
Carolina extended the lead to 8-1 on Marcus Holman's third goal of the game, assisted by Cryder DiPietro at 12:25 of the third quarter. After a pushing infraction by Navy's Marty Gallagher, the Heels made it 9-1 with just 4:39 elapsed in the third period as Thomas Wood scored on the extra-man with due credit to Petracca's third assist of the game.
Neither team scored for the next seven minutes. Navy had an EMO after a slashing call on UNC's Ryan Flanagan but Joe Lennon's shot hit the cross bar. UNC got the ground ball and killed off the penalty.
Holman scored his fourth goal of the contest, off Petracca's fourth assist with 3:22 left in the frame. Navy responded with an unassisted goal by Taylor Cook with 2:47 left in the third quarter before the Tar Heels scored their final goal of the game with Sean DeLaney scoring on the man-up from Gavin Petracca with 1:01 left in the quarter.
Navy had both goals of the fourth quarter. Basil Darastos scored an unassisted goal at 10:20 as Madalon got a piece of the shot but was unable to stop it from going. Navy then finished off the scoring at 2:14 as Joe Lennon took a pass from Patrick Moran for the fourth and final Navy tally.
UNC will have nine days off before heading backing to the state of Maryland to play UMBC on Saturday, March 6 at noon at UMBC Stadium in Catonsville, Md. The two teams last met in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament when the Tar Heels prevailed 15-13 in Chapel Hill.
