University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Colgate
Carolina Offense Excels In NCAA First Round Win
May 11, 2015 | Men's Lacrosse
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Third-seeded North Carolina outscored Patriot League champion Colgate 8-2 in the second quarter and never looked back en route to a 19-12 first round win over the Raiders in the 2015 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship at Fetzer Field Sunday evening.
With the victory the Tar Heels advance to the NCAA quarterfinals where they will meet sixth-seeded Maryland on Sunday, May 17 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. The Tar Heels will be looking to avenge a 10-8 loss to the Terrapins on March 21 and earn their first trip to Championship Weekend since 1993. Game time next Sunday is 2:30 p.m. and the game will be nationally televised on ESPN2.
Coach Joe Breschi's team trailed 4-3 at the end of the first quarter but the Tar Heels came out and scored seven of the first eight goals of the second quarter, eventually gaining an 11-6 halftime lead. The Tar Heels extended their lead to seven goals in the third quarter before a four-goal run by the Raiders pulled them within 15-12 with 13:37 to play.
Carolina righted the ship and scored the last four goals of the game to pull away for the 19-12 victory. It was the most goals scored by the Tar Heels in an NCAA Tournament game since UNC beat Syracuse 19-13 in the NCAA semifinals in 1991 at the Carrier Dome.
It proved to be another record-setting game for Tar Heel players as the attack trio of Luke Goldstock, Jimmy Bitter and Joey Sankey combined for 11 goals and six assists. Midfielders Walker Chafee and Steve Pontrello both had career highs for points in a game, Patrick Kelly got on the scoreboard for the first time since the Harvard game with a goal and an assist and defenseman Zach Powers scored his first career goal as multiple Tar Heels got in on the offensive act.
Goldstock's five goals allowed him to pass 1991 National Player of the Year Dennis Goldstein as the most prolific goal scorer in a season in UNC history. Goldstock now has 49 goals this season, two more than Goldstein had while leading the Tar Heels to the 1991 NCAA championship.
Joey Sankey had four goals and an assist while Jimmy Bitter and Luke Goldstock were the high scorers on the day with six points each. Bitter had two goals and four assists while Goldstock had five goals and one assist.
Sankey improved his career point total to 225, already the school record, while Bitter now has 205 points, the third highest total in UNC lore behind Sankey and Marcus Holman (213 points). Both players also inched closer to breaking Bert Fett's record for career goals at UNC (128 from 1972-75). Bitter now has 125 career goals and Sankey has 122 and they rank second and third in UNC history.
Steve Pontrello's three goals matched his career high against Harvard on March 18, 2014. His four points were a career high. Walker Chafee matched his career high for both goals (two) and points in a game (three).
A pair of Colgate players recorded hat tricks in the game with both Chase Wittich and Ryan Walsh scoring three times. Cameron Williams had two goals and two assists for the Raiders while Matt Clarkson had a goal and three assists.
UNC outshot the Raiders 54-37 and had an edge in ground balls 43-28. Stephen Kelly won 20 of 32 face-offs and had 11 ground balls. He was just two shy of his personal high for face-offs won in a game and two shy of his career record for ground balls in a contest. Kelly's 20 face-off wins marked only the eighth time in UNC history a Tar Heel has won 20 or more in a single game. He has 22 face-off wins earlier this season versus Duke.
In a battle of goalkeepers named Burke, UNC's Kieran Burke made 11 saves and allowed 12 goals while Colgate's Brandon Burke had 14 saves and 19 goals allowed.
After the Tar Heels opened a 3-1 lead, Colgate answered with three goals late in the opening period to take its only lead of the game at 4-3. Carolina responded to the Raiders' run by notching the first four goals of the second quarter. Goldstock scored back-to-back unassisted goals to put the Tar Heels ahead for good at 5-4. Then goals by Pontrello and Bitter pushed the lead to 7-4 a little less than 10 minutes before halftime. Wittich pulled Colgate back within two goals before Joey Sankey packaged goals around Zach Powers' first career tally to make it 10-5 in the Tar Heels' favor with 3:55 left in the half.
Heading into the second half, Carolina appeared in good shape with goals by Patrick Kelly and Sankey giving the Tar Heels a 15-8 lead with 6:27 left in the third quarter. Sankey's goal was his 30th of the season, the first time the Tar Heels have had four 30-goal scorers in the same campaign (Goldstock, Bitter, Chad Tutton, Sankey).
But Colgate stormed back with three goals in a span of 1:20 to pull within four goals and then Cameron Williams scored a man-up goal with 13:37 to slice the Tar Heel lead to three goals.
After Williams' goal, the Tar Heel defense clamped down and did not allow a shot by Colgate for a span of nine minutes. Meanwhile, Joey Sankey and Jimmy Bitter had scored goals to restore a five-goal lead. Carolina then clinched the win with goals by Walker Chafee and Shane Simpson in the closing minutes.
Kieran Burke shut the door for the Tar Heels with a pair of saves in the last two minutes as Carolina's final margin of seven goals equaled its biggest lead of the game.
North Carolina improved to 13-3 with the victory while Colgate's season ended at 10-6.
