University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Manhattan
Pontrello's Five Goals Lead Tar Heels Past Manhattan 18-2
March 14, 2016 | Men's Lacrosse
RIVERDALE, N.Y. – Steve Pontrello scored a career-high five goals to lead the #17 North Carolina men's lacrosse team to an 18-2 victory over Manhattan at Gaelic Park. Twelve different Tar Heels scored goals in the game as the Tar Heels broke a two-game losing streak and improved to 4-3 on the season. The Jaspers fell to 1-7 with the loss.
Pontrello led the Tar Heels with five goals and an assist, notching career highs for both goals and points in a game. His previous high for goals was four against Michigan in the season opener on February 6. Luke Goldstock had two goals and two assists in the game and Patrick Kelly had two goals and one assist. Goldstock has now scored a goal in 24 successive games for the Tar Heels, a figure tied for the fourth longest scoring streak in Carolina history.
In addition to 12 different goal scorers, UNC had 10 different players record assists. Jesse Cuccia, Patrick McCormick, Andy Matthews and Cole Haverty scored their first goals in Tar Heel uniforms. Ryan Macri and Alex McGovern each had their first career assists.
Stephen Kelly set a school record for face-off winning percentage in a game as he won all 16 draws he took and had a game-high nine ground balls, the fourth time this season he has scooped up nine ground balls in a game. Freshman Charles Kelly went 4-for-4 at the X as the Tar Heels won 20 of 22 face-offs overall.
UNC outshot the Jaspers 56-14, including 35-7 in the first half en route to taking a 14-1 lead at intermission. The Tar Heels also won the ground ball battle 35-16. Brian Balkam, Colin Reder and Eddie Gilman shared goalkeeping duties for the Tar Heels in the victory. Michael Zingaro made the start for Manhattan and made 17 saves while allowing 14 goals in 46:52 of action.
The Tar Heels got out of the gate quickly, scoring five goals in the opening 8:40 of the game to take the lead. Pontrello scored the first and third goals and assisted on the second, a tally by Chris Cloutier. Goldstock and McCormick also scored for the Tar Heels in the 5-0 scoring run. Pontrello scored his third goal of the quarter, an unassisted tally, with three seconds left in the first period, making it 6-1 Tar Heels.
The Tar Heels outscored the Jaspers 8-0 in the second period of action with Stephen Kelly notching his first goal of the season off the opening face-off of the quarter. At 8:07, Andy Matthews scored his first career goal off an assist by Ryan Macri as the Tar Heels hit double digits.
Carolina went on another scoring run later in the first quarter as Shane Simpson, Timmy Kelly, Luke Goldstock and Steve Pontrello scored in a span of 2:17 to make it 14-1 Tar Heels with 1:42 left in the first half.
Pontrello notched his fifth goal just 30 seconds into the second half to finish off his six-point performance. Patrick Kelly got his second goal of the game off Luke Goldstock's second assist at 6:40 of the period.
After a goal later in the quarter by Manhattan, UNC finished off the scoring with two goals in the fourth period. Jesse Cuccia scored an unassisted goal 50 seconds into the period and then a pair of Tar Heel freshmen combined to scored at 4:33 with Cole Haverty scoring off an assist by Alex McGovern.
The 17th-ranked Tar Heels will be back in action on Saturday when they host 19th-ranked Richmond at 7 p.m. at Fetzer Field. The game will be telecast nationally on ESPN3.
