University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Princeton
Tar Heels Prevail In Shootout With Tigers 13-11
March 8, 2014 | Men's Lacrosse
PRINCETON, N.J. — Pat Foster recorded his first hat trick since his freshman year and Chad Tutton also had three-goal game, including the game-winner with 3:50 left in the fourth quarter, as #6 North Carolina won a barnburner at #13 Princeton 13-11 Friday night before 1,717 fans at Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium.
In the nationally-televised ESPNU contest, he Tar Heels twice had three goal leads in the game, once in the first quarter and again in the third quarter, but Princeton rallied with four straight goals to take an 11-10 lead with 14 minutes left in the game. From then on the Tar Heel defense shutout the Tigers and goals by Shane Simpson and Tutton put the Heels ahead for good and Jimmy Bitter added on a late tally to ice the win.
Carolina improves to 4-1 overall on the season while Princeton fell to 2-2. The Tar Heels have won each regular-season meeting against the Tigers in the last five years with four of those wins by a one-goal or two-goal margin. A year ago, the teams played a 16-15 slugfest in Chapel Hill that was decided by a goal by Tutton with three seconds to play.
Tutton finished the game with three goals and one assist, running his career hat trick total to 10. When he scored with 9:50 left in the first quarter, he ran his streak for games with a goal to 18 in a row dating back to March 9, 2013. That's the seventh longest goal-scoring streak in Tar Heel history.
Pat Foster came off the bench to score three goals, posting his third career hat trick and his first since April 17, 2011 versus Lehigh.
Jimmy Bitter had a four-point night with two goals and two assists and Joey Sankey added a goal and three assists. Bitter has now recorded points in 31 successive games for Carolina dating back to March 16, 2012. Sankey has a 26-game points streak that goes back to April 20, 2012.
Freshman Stephen Kelly was also a huge factor in the game for the Tar Heels as he won 15 of 26 face-offs and recorded a game-high 13 ground balls. That's the most face-offs won in a game by a Tar Heel since R.G. Keenan won 15 against Lehigh on May 11, 2013. The 13 ground balls by Kelly were the most in a game by a UNC player since Shane Walterhoefer had 15 against Providence on March 11, 2009.
UNC needed the play of its offensive heroes as well as Kelly yeoman work at the X to overcome a balanced and potent Princeton attack. Tom Schreiber, 2013 Tewaaraton Trophy finalist, had a six-point game with three goals and three assists to lead Princeton. Kip Orban also had a hat trick for the Tigers and attackman Mike MacDonald had a goal and four assists.
Carolina outshot the Tigers 36-30 on the night and had a 15-13 edge at the face-off circle. Matt O'Connor played the whole way in goal for Princeton and made 12 saves. It was a tough night in goal for Kieran Burke of Carolina as he made just five saves. But Burke's save on a point blank shot by Ryan Ambler with 1:42 remaining in the game preserved a 12-11 lead for the Tar Heels who then went on to run off most of the remainder of the clock before Bitter scored the insurance goal with 13 seconds to play.
Carolina's riding unit was also particularly effective as it forced the Tigers into five failed clears, including three in the third quarter. Altogether, Princeton committed 14 turnovers while UNC limited its turnover output to just 10, another key in the game.
UNC will return home to Chapel Hill Saturday as it gets ready for a Tuesday afternoon encounter against Bucknell at Fetzer Field. Game time is 4 p.m.
After an apparent early goal by Joey Sankey was disallowed by a crease violation, the Tigers got on the scoreboard first courtesy of Tom Schreiber's first of three goals with 11:38 to play in the first quarter. The Tar Heels answered Schreiber's early tally with a four-goal run over the course of just 3:16 with four different Carolina players notching scores in the process. Spencer Parks and Chad Tutton scored back-to-back unassisted goals for UNC at 10:48 and 9:50 of the quarter. The latter of the two goals extended Tutton's goal-scoring streak to 18 games in a row and he has also tallied goals in 30 of the past 31 games he has played in.
Just forty-eight seconds after Tutton's goal, Pat Foster scored the first of his three goals on the night off an assist by Joey Sankey. It took just another one minute and 30 seconds before Jimmy Bitter scored an unassisted goal for his first of five points on the night. Sankey's assist on Foster's goal extended his point streak to 26 games. Bitter's goal moments later ran his points streak to 31 games and the junior attackman has now scored goals in 26 of the past 28 games.
Princeton picked itself up off the turf and ran off four goals in a row to take a 5-4 lead in the game with 6:19 left in the first quarter. Just as in the UNC run, the four Princeton goals came off the sticks of four different players as Will Rotatori, Tucker Shanley, Kip Orban and Schriber garnering goals that put the Tigers up for the second time in the game.
Carolina tied the game as Joey Sankey positioned himself on the crease and finished off a feed from Bitter with 5:26 left in the half, making it 5-5. In the process, Sankey garnered a goal for the 23rd time in the past 26 games. For the second straight quarter, Princeton scored in the final 10 seconds of play as Kip Orban beat Kieran Burke off a feed from Mike MacDonald to make it 6-5 with 10 seconds left in the half. But the momentum swing was brief indeed as Stephen Kelly won the ensuing face-off and went down and scored on a back-handed bounced shot with five seconds left to even the game at halftime.
Carolina retook the lead 2:52 into the third quarter as Tutton scored a transition goal from 18 yards out, going high and hard into the back of the net off an assist by Sankey. Less than two minutes later, Foster scored his second goal of the game as he rolled the crease from the right side and finished on the doorstep past O'Connor. Sankey assisted on the goal, giving UNC an 8-6 lead with 10:15 left in the third quarter.
Princeton answered that goal just 34 seconds later as MacDonald took an assist from Schreiber in an unsettled situation to cut the Tar Heel lead back to a single goal. Foster followed with his third goal of the game, assisted by Bitter at 5:57, and Steve Pontrello scored on an outside shot off an assist by Spencer Parks at 3:50 to make it 10-7 in favor of the Tar Heels. As quickly as Carolina built that lead, Princeton took even less time to tie the game again. The Tigers scored three goals in just 1:13, getting scores from Ryan Ambler, Jake Froccaro and Kip Orban to tie the game at 10-10 with 1:47 left in the third quarter. Schreiber assisted on the first two goals in that span.
Princeton opened the fourth quarter with a goal one minute in by Schreiber off a MacDonald assist, giving the Tigers their last lead of the game. Just a little less than four minutes later, Canadian freshman Shane Simpson scored from 12 yards out front off an assist by his countryman Tutton. The game was knotted for the last time at 11-11 with 10:09 to play.
Neither team scored for more than six minutes before Carolina got the go-ahead goal off the stick of Tutton with 3:50 to play. Tutton made a nifty dodge past his opponent before bouncing a shot past the Princeton goalie from 10 yards out.
After Burke made his biggest save of the game on the Ambler shot with 1:42 left, UNC cleared the ball and called timeout. The Tar Heels effectively killed off most of the clock from the 1:29 mark on, drawing a flag down situation in the process for a hold against Princeton. Steve Pontrello hustled to get a ground ball to keep the possession going without the clock stopping. With a timer on situation against the Tar Heels, Bitter scored with two seconds remaining in the shot clock situation and 13 seconds remaining in the game. Princeton won the ensuing face-off but a shot by Hunter deButts was saved by Burke and Austin Pifani claimed the ground ball as the clock ran out.
Six different players had caused turnovers for UNC. Kelly led the Heels with 13 ground balls while Bitter, Pifani, Foster and Evan Connell each scooped up three grounders.
