University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Virginia
Tar Heels Fall To #1 Virginia 15-10
April 7, 2012 | Men's Lacrosse
April 7, 2012
Post-Game Audio With Coach Breschi (mp3) | Watch UNC-Virginia Game Highlights
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Steele Stanwick scored three goals and added four assists to power top-ranked Virginia to a 15-10 victory over ninth-ranked North Carolina Saturday afternoon at Fetzer Field before the largest crowd to watch a men's lacrosse game there in over 21 years.
Stanwick, who had eight points in a 12-8 win for the Cavaliers last Saturday at Maryland, picked up right where he left off against the Terps. His goal into an empty net as he beat a double team with 5:51 left in the second quarter put the Wahoos up for good and sparked a 6-0 scoring run that had them up 10-4 with 1:49 left in the third quarter. Carolina outscored the Cavaliers 6-5 after that but it was too little, too late.
Virginia improved to 10-1 on the season and a perfect 2-0 in the ACC. The Tar Heels, who were looking for their first sweep of Maryland, Johns Hopkins and Virginia in the same season since 1994, saw their three-match winning streak end. Carolina is now 8-4 overall and finishes 1-2 in the ACC in the regular season. The Cavaliers have beaten the Tar Heels nine straight times. This was their largest margin of victory against Carolina since a 21-13 win by Virginia at Fetzer Field in 2006. It was Carolina's largest losing margin since falling 13-6 to Maryland in the 2011 NCAA Tournament first round.
The game was nationally televised by ESPN and drew a crowd of 5,138 fans. That is the largest crowd to see a men's lacrosse game at Fetzer Field since April 6, 1991 when 5,700 fans saw top-ranked North Carolina beat second-ranked Johns Hopkins 11-6.
Besides Stanwick, Virginia got a hat trick from Chris Bocklet while Owen Van Arsdale had two goals and an assist and Rob Emery had two goals. Matt White had a goal and two assists for Virginia and Ryan Tucker had a goal and an assist.
Freshman midfielder Chad Tutton matched his career high for goals in a game with three tallies, all in the fourth quarter, while Jimmy Bitter and Marcus Holman both had two goals and an assist. Joey Sankey matched his career high with three assists. Ryan Creighton had a goal and an assist for the Tar Heels.
Carolina outshot the Cavaliers 41-35 but the Wahoos had the higher quality shots as 28 of their 35 shots were on goal compared to only 22 of 41 by the Tar Heels. Virginia also won the ground ball battle 35-32 and committed two fewer turnovers, 12, as compared to 14 by UNC. The teams were virtually even at the X with UNC winning 14 draws and the Wahoos winning 13. Virginia cashed in with three extra-man goals while the Tar Heels were 1-for-4 on the EMO.
Defensemen Chris Clements and Scott McWilliams both had six ground balls for Virginia while R.G. Keenan led the Tar Heels with six ground balls.
Rob Fortunato had a solid day in the cage for the Cavaliers as he made 12 saves and improved his record this year to 10-1. Steven Rastivo had 13 saves for Carolina. Aggressive defense by the Tar Heels allowed the Cavaliers to get three empty-netters, including goals by Stanwick with 2:48 to play and Pat Harbeson with seven seconds left as Carolina was pressing to get the ball back.
Virginia never trailed in the game and there was only one tie. Van Arsdale and LaPierre opened the scoring for the Cavs before Jimmy Bitter scored off an assist by Jack McBride with 7:04 left in the first quarter. After a pushing penalty on Sankey, the Cavaliers cashed in with their first EMO goal of the game as Bocklet scored to make it 3-1 with 4:32 left in the opening period. Bitter's unassisted goal on a restart then got the Tar Heels back within 3-2 just 22 seconds later and that how the first quarter ended.
After a goal by Rob Emery, the Tar Heels cashed in with back-to-back goals, the first by Marcus Holman in front off a nifty pass by Jimmy Bitter and the second by Jimmy Dunster on a low, hard shot with 5:51 left in the second quarter, assist to Thomas Wood.
Stanwick then beat a double team to score a little over a minute later and Emery's man-up goal with 2:22 to play had the Cavs up 6-4 at halftime. Rastivo made six saves in the second quarter to help the Tar Heels stay in the game.
UNC started the second half with a man-up chance for 54 seconds but Davey Emala's shot was stopped by Fortunato, who ended up with seven second-half saves. The Wahoos then scored four goals in a span of less than five minutes to pull ahead 10-4. Four different players scored in the run and all four goals were assisted including two helpers by Stanwick. Marcus Holman's goal off an assist by Sankey with 1:32 left in the third quarter stopped the bleeding for the Tar Heels.
Virginia scored the opening two goals of the quarter and had its biggest lead of the game at 12-5 with 11:40 left on a man-up goal by Matt White. A goal by Davey Emala and back-to-back tallies by Chad Tutton pulled the Tar Heels back within 12-8 and they had possession again but Scott McWilliams forced a turnover, one of three caused turnovers he had in the game, and that blunted any further UNC comeback efforts.
Carolina will have seven days to regroup before serving as the host school for the ESPNU Warrior Classic next Saturday at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. Syracuse and Rutgers will meet in the first game of the doubleheader at 11 a.m. while UNC will meet Hofstra (6-5) in the second game at 1:30 p.m. Both games will be nationally televised by ESPNU.
