University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Maryland
Tar Heels Rally Past No. 6 Terrapins In Fourth Quarter
March 24, 2012 | Men's Lacrosse
March 24, 2012
Post-Game Audio Coach Breschi (mp3) | Post-Game Audio Holman (mp3) | Post-Game Audio Rastivo (mp3) | Post-Game Audio Wood (mp3)
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - It was Atlantic Coast Conference men's lacrosse at its best as #15 North Carolina edged #6 Maryland 11-10 Saturday afternoon at Fetzer Field in a game that featured five ties and four lead changes. The Tar Heels trailed by two early in the fourth quarter before scoring five of the next six goals and then staving off a Maryland flurry in the final minute.
The Tar Heels improved to 7-3 on the season and 1-1 in the ACC and they have now beaten the Terps in three straight regular-season meetings. The Terrapins fell to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
Joey Sankey led the Tar Heels with his fourth hat trick of the season while sophomore midfielder Will Campbell scored two unassisted goals, including the score that put Carolina up for good with 6:42 to play. Thomas Wood added a pair of goals for Carolina, Marcus Holman had a goal and three assists and Jimmy Bitter had two assists as the attack unit came through for the Tar Heels in a big way.
Billy Gribbin led the way for the Terps with three goals while Joe Cummings had two goals and two assists. Defensive midfielder Landon Carr had a goal and an assist for the Terps while attackman Owen Blye assisted on three tallies.
The game was as hard fought as the final score would indicate but the game was marred by an unfortunate incident that led to two ejections and five major penalties combined between the two teams with 40 seconds to play.
The Terps outshot the Tar Heels 35-31 in the game while UNC had a slight edge in ground balls at 33-27, including a 15-8 edge in the fourth quarter as the Tar Heels outscored the Terps 5-3 in the final frame. The Tar Heels committed 13 turnovers while the Terps had 12.
UNC's R.G. Keenan was a big key in the game for UNC as he won 14 off 22 face-offs and led the Tar Heels in ground balls with seven. Michael Ehrhardt led Maryland with five ground balls. Niko Amato finished with 10 saves for the Terps while Steven Rastivo had seven for Carolina. Both teams cashed in on their extra-man offense opportunities as UNC scored on 3 of 6 chances and Maryland also tallied on 3 of 6 chances.
The Tar Heels bolted to a 3-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the game on goals by Marcus Holman, Will Campbell and Joey Sankey, who notched his fourth hat trick of the season. Jimmy Bitter had assists on Carolina's first and third goals with the latter building a three-goal cushion with 5:55 left in the first quarter
After Maryland's Billy Gribbin scored back-to-back goals, UNC's Sankey scored 12 seconds before halftime off a feed by Jack McBride. The Terps answered that goal with an unassisted tally by Landon Carr with one second left in the first half.
Trailing only 4-3 at the half, the Terps came out and grabbed the lead quickly after intermission as Joe Cummings scored nine seconds into the second half and then long-stick midfielder Jesse Bernhardt tallied a minute and a half later.
UNC responded with a man-up goal by Davey Emala to tie the match before Chad Tutton redirected a pass from Marcus Holman past Amato with 10:34 left in the third quarter. With that goal Carolina regained the lead 6-5.
Maryland then ran off three goals in a row as Carolina was whistled for five penalties in a 10:01 span of the third quarter. An extra-man goal by Billy Gribbin, his third score of the game, with 13:14 to play in the final period that had the Terps up by two goals at 8-6.
Momentum shifted less than two minutes later as Joey Sankey dipped under a pair of defensemen and while falling to the ground scored top shelf past Amato with 11:39 left. That goal came on a "keep it in" situation with a flag down on the play and after the goal UNC got the benefit of a one-minute penalty against Maryland's Goran Murray for slashing.
Keenan won the ensuing face-off to Ryan Creighton on the wing and the Tar Heels got two great looks with Davey Emala hitting the pipe at 11:05 and then having his shot blocked at 10:46. Emala chased down his own ground ball off the blocked shot and fed Holman who hit Nicky Galasso lurking on the crease for a tying score with 10:37 left.
Carolina got another man-up situation just moments later and Galasso's outside rocket was saved by Amato but the ground ball bounced right to Thomas Wood who dunked it past Amato at 9:43 to put the Heels up 9-8.
Maryland drew even on a Drew Snider goal in an unsettled situation with 7:54 left but just over a minute later Will Campbell scored on a right alley dodge to put the Heels up for good. It was Campbell's second goal of the game. He came into the contest with three in his career and only one previous goal this season
Carolina then extended its lead to 11-9 after a Terrapin turnover. Davey Emala got the ball off the ground for UNC and he fed Tyler Morton on the break and Thomas Wood finished the play with 2:23 left. It was Morton's first point since he scored two goals against Lehigh on February 20, 2010.
Carolina went a man-up again but Holman turned the ball over with 1:17 left. On the other end Kevin Cooper coughed it up with 53 seconds left and Jordan Smith claimed the ground ball with 48 seconds to play.
On the ensuing clear, Cooper was called for a three-minute cross checking penalty. An altercation ensued and both Cooper and UNC's Greg McBride were ejected for fighting. Carolina's Charlie McComas also received a cross checking penalty, McBride was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and both benches were assessed conduct foul.
The altercation actually gave the Terrapins new life as with 40 seconds left the Tar Heels were now down in men 8-7 on the field and their apparent clear was nullified when the fight broke out. Now up a man, the Terps forced a turnover by Jimmy Dunster with 32 seconds left and defenseman Goran Murray scored on the other end off an assist by Joe Cummings with 20 seconds left.
Maryland won the ensuing face-off and had a 4-on-3 fast break but Steven Rastivo made a save on a short by Joe Cummings with three seconds left and the goalkeeper scooped up the ground ball with one second left as the Tar Heels held on for the ACC win.
The Tar Heels will be back in action again next Sunday, April 1 at 6:30 p.m. when they face second-ranked Johns Hopkins in the Konica Minolta Big City at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The game will be nationally televised on ESPNU.
