North Carolina
Syracuse
Tar Heels Fall To Orange In ACC Tournament Semifinals
April 25, 2015 | Men's Lacrosse
CHESTER, PA. - Second-ranked North Carolina fell to fourth-ranked Syracuse 9-8 in the ACC Tournament semifinals Friday night before a crowd of 6,278 fans at PPL Park. Kevin Rice scored the game-winner for the Orange with 1:48 to play, propelling the Orange into the ACC championship game Sunday against Duke at 1 p.m.
The Tar Heels had a balanced scoring attack and almost came back from a three-goal second half deficit. Chad Tutton scored twice and added an assist for the Tar Heels while Joey Sankey had a goal and two assists and Walker Chafee and Luke Goldstock each had a goal and an assist. Other Carolina goals came from Duncan Hutchins, Brett Bedard and Drew Hays. Syracuse was led by Nicky Galasso with three goals while Kevin Rice and Dylan Donahue each scored twice. Both Rice and Donahue had two assists each for Syracuse and Randy Staats had a goal and an assist.
Syracuse improved to 10-2 with the victory while the Tar Heels fell to 12-3 after losing their last two games of the season by single goals to #1 Notre Dame and #2 Syracuse.
After Rice scored to put the Orange up, the Tar Heels forced a turnover as Nicky Galasso was stripped by Ryan Kilpatrick. On the clear, the Tar Heels were whistled for an offside call that gave the ball back to Syracuse and allowed the Orange to run out the clock.
Syracuse outshot the Tar Heels 36-32 while the Tar Heels had a 25-21 edge in ground balls. Syracuse led 14-7 at the face-off circle but Carolina negated that advantage by forcing 17 Orange turnovers while UNC turned the ball over just 11 times.
Syracuse's Bobby Wardwell made 14 saves while Kieran Burke had 13 saves for the Tar Heels.
Carolina will await its NCAA Tournament fate when bids are announced on Sunday, May 3 in a live selection show on ESPNU.
Syracuse jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the game on a pair of Nicky Galasso goals before the Heels ran off three goals in a row from unexpected sources Drew Hays, Walker Chafee and Brett Bedard to go up for the first time 3-0. The Orange outscored the Tar Heels 3-2 over the last 8:47 of the second quarter and the teams went to halftime tied at 5-5. Carolina's last lead in the game came with 3:25 left before halftime on an unassisted goal by Joey Sankey.
A key stretch in the game came in the came in the opening minutes of the second half when the Orange ran off three goals in a span of less than four minutes. When Henry Schoonmaker scored with 9:51 left in the quarter it was 8-5 Syracuse. The Orange would not score again until Rice's goal with 1:48 to play. In the interim, UNC got a goal from Duncan Hutchins and two from Chad Tutton to tie the game. Tutton's second goal came with 11:12 to play and neither team scored again until Rice's game-winner in a timer-on situation.
The game marked only the second time this year UNC has been held to single digits in goals. The other time was in a 10-8 loss against Maryland on March 22. Syracuse was held to nine goals, the first time all year the Orange have been held to singles digits. Their previous low total was 12 each against Army and Notre Dame.
