University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Notre Dame
Late Notre Dame Rally Denies Carolina
April 18, 2015 | Men's Lacrosse
Notre Dame improved to 9-1 on the season and 4-0 in the ACC while North Carolina fell to 12-2 overall and 3-1 in the ACC. Notre Dame will play fourth-seeded Duke in the opening semifinal game of the ACC Tournament next Friday at 5:30 p.m. while UNC will meet third-seeded Syracuse in the second semifinal game at 8 p.m. at PPL Park.
Luke Goldstock led Carolina with four goals Saturday while Jimmy Bitter, Chad Tutton and Peyton Klawinski each had three goals for Carolina. Joey Sankey had three assists for the Tar Heels. Bitter's three goals moved him into second place all-time in goal scoring at UNC with 123 tallies behind only Bert Fett's school record 128 goals. Bitter passed Marcus Holman for second place Saturday on the all-time chart.
Notre Dame was led by Mikey Wynne and Matt Kavanagh who each scored four goals. Connor Doyle and Sergio Perkovic each scored three times for Notre Dame. Jim Marlatt had four assists for the Fighting Irish.
The Fighting Irish outshot the Tar Heels 48-46 to wipe out a 42-26 advantage by the Tar Heels in ground balls. Stephen Kelly won 18 of 33 face-offs for UNC and matched his career high for ground balls in a game with 13. Kieran Burke made 11 saves for UNC while Shane Doss made nine saves for Notre Dame.
The game was tied 3-3 at the end of one period, 7-7 at the half and 11-11 at the end of the third quarter. Neither team led by more than two goals in the game at any point. UNC was up 14-12 with less than two minutes to go before turning the ball over. Matt Kavanagh's shot was saved by Kieran Burke with 1:27 to play and as Kavanagh was headed into the crease he was hit by UNC's Evan Connell. Connell was assessed a two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct that locked him in the penalty box for two minutes.
On the resulting extra-man opportunity, Jim Marlatt produced three assists for Notre Dame, feeding Matt Kavanagh for a goal at 1:15 and then assisting Sergio Perkovic on the game-tying goal at 33 seconds. Notre Dame again got possession and Marlatt found Kavanagh for the game-winner with seven seconds to play.
NEXT UP: The Tar Heels will have six days to regroup before meeting Syracuse Friday in the ACC Tournament semifinals at Chester, Pa.'s PPL Park at 8 p.m. on Friday evening.
