University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Notre Dame
Comeback For The Ages: UNC Rallies Past #1 Irish
April 23, 2016 | Men's Lacrosse
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The #16 University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team rallied from a five-goal deficit with less than 10 minutes to play in regulation to down #1 Notre Dame 17-15 before 3,371 fans at Kenan Stadium Saturday afternoon.
On Senior Day and Alumni Weekend for the Tar Heels, UNC scored the last seven goals of the game, all in a span of 7:29 in the fourth period. UNC trailed by 15-10 with 10:01 to play before Chris Cloutier and Michael Tagliaferri scored goals to pull the Tar Heels within 15-12 with 8:16 to play. After neither team scored for more than three minutes before Luke Goldstock began a five-goal scoring run for the Tar Heels that started with 4:47 to play in the fourth quarter and ended with a Patrick Kelly goal with 1:49 to play in the game. Kelly's goal put UNC up 17-15 and Carolina won the ensuing face-off and then ran off all but 14 seconds of the clock to secure the victory.
With the win, UNC improved to 8-5 on the season and 3-1 in the ACC. Notre Dame fell to 9-2 overall and 3-1 in the ACC. Carolina has secured the #1 seed in the ACC Tournament which begins Friday at Fifth Third Bank Stadium in Kennesaw, Ga. The Tar Heels will play fourth-seed Syracuse in the first semifinal game Friday at 6 p.m. while second-seeded Notre Dame will play third-seeded Duke at 8 p.m. The ACC championship game will be next Sunday at 12 noon. The Tar Heels are the #1 seed in the ACC Tournament for the first time since 1996 and their ACC co-regular season championship is their first since 2013.
UNC finished the day with a 45-37 edge in shots and a 36-33 advantage in ground balls. UNC's Stephen Kelly again had an outstanding day in the face-off circle for UNC as he won 19 of 35 face-offs and matched his season high with 12 ground balls. Kelly has now won 19 or more face-offs in a game four times in his career and he his 12 ground balls were one short of his career high. He has earned a dozen or more ground balls in a game four times in his career.
Luke Goldstock and Steve Pontrello each had four goals and two assists to lead the Tar Heels. Patrick Kelly had a hat trick and Michael Tagliaferri had two goals and an assist. Sergio Perkovic had four goals for Notre Dame while Mikey Wynne has three goals and Matt Kavanagh had a goal and three assists.
The 17 goals allowed by Notre Dame were the most it had given up all season. The previous high was nine in a 9-8 loss to Denver on March 13. Notre Dame entered the game having given up an average of just 6.60 goals per contest. Shane Doss played all 60 minutes in goal for Notre Dame and made 11 saves while giving up the 17 goals. UNC freshman Colin Reder started in goal for the Tar Heels due to Brian Balkam's illness. In 40:46, Reder made six saves while allowing 12 goals. Balkam came on with 4:14 to play in the third quarter and he made five saves and allowed three goals. He had three key saves in the fourth quarter as the Tar Heels outscored the Fighting Irish 8-1 in the final 15 minutes to rally for the win.
The Irish jumped out to an early lead at 3-1 with less than four minutes gone in the game before goals by Patrick Kelly and Jake Matthai tied things at 3-3 with 4:33 left before the end of the period. Notre Dame then ran off three goals to lead 6-3 at the end of the period. Kyle Trolley's goal at five seconds made it 5-3 and then Drew Schantz scored off the face-off on a 45-yard shot with one second to play in the quarter.
The Tar Heels bounced back in the second quarter and outscored the Fighting Irish 5-2 to knot things at the half 8-8. Pontrello put on a nearly one-man show in the second quarter, scoring three of his four goals. The Tar Heels tied it at 8-8 when Brian Cannon forced a turnover by Doss on a clearing attempt, seized the ground ball and fed Pontrello for a score into an empty net with 1:43 left in the half.
In the third quarter, the momentum would shift decisively to the Fighting Irish. Trevor Brosco had the first goal of the period and then Wynne scored after a nearly two-minute long possession to make it 10-8 in favor of the Irish with 7:58 left in the third quarter. Pontrello dodged from behind the crease to score 56 seconds later and cut the UNC deficit to a single goal. But Notre Dame ran off four successive goals in the final 5:34 of the third quarter to pull ahead by 14-9. Four different Notre Dame players scored in that run – Sergio Perkovic, Ryder Garnsey, Mikey Wynne and Timmy Phillips. The last goal of the run by Phillips came with 48 seconds left in the quarter.
The Irish appeared to being sitting pretty heading into the final 15 minutes. Goldstock got one back for UNC at the 10:40 mark but Perkovic scored on the man up 39 seconds later to restore a five-goal lead for Notre Dame.
Then what may have been the biggest fourth quarter comeback in UNC lacrosse history began, pending further research in Carolina archives. Chris Cloutier muscled his way past a pair of defenders to score with 9:18 left. The Tar Heels then went two-men up off the ensuing face-off and while Notre Dame killed off one of the penalties, Carolina scored right at the end of the one-minute EMO to cut the ND lead to three. Tagliaferri scored off a pass from Goldstock and the Heels were within 15-12.
The next possessions were crucial in the game's outcome. UNC won the face-off but Doss stopped a shot by Stephen Kelly at 8:09. Notre Dame cleared the ball and with a flag down against Carolina worked the clock before Balkam stopped a shot by Perkovic at 6:37. At that point, UNC's Jack Lambert was sent off for 30 seconds for holding. Fourteen seconds later, Mikey Wynne hit the post. The ball bounded back across midfield with the Irish retaining possession on a ground ball pickup by Edwin Glazener. At 6:07, Perkovic found the pipe again before Kavanagh retrieved a ground ball. Notre Dame worked clock and then at 5:16, Balkam layed out to save a shot by Brendan Collins. The ball was mere inches from trickling over the line before Balkam gathered himself and the ground ball and started the UNC clear.
From then on it was all Tar Heels. At 4:47, Goldstock scored from Shane Simpson to make it 15-13. After a media timeout, UNC won the ensuing face-off and Simpson again was the assist man on a Goldstock goal. It was suddenly 15-14 with 3:48 to play.
Stephen Kelly won the next face-off and after Doss turned away a shot by Patrick Kelly, Simpson drove the right alley to score the tying goal with 2:56 to play. The fireworks were hardly concluded, however. It was Stephen Kelly's turn to play hero for the Heels. He won the following face-off and headed right down the middle of the field to score past Doss at the 2:50 mark and the Tar Heels had their first lead of the game at 16-15.
Notre Dame's P.J. Finley won the next face-off but his shot was stonewalled by Balkam. Jack Rowlett claimed the ground ball and after a successful Tar Heel clear, Patrick Kelly scored off an assist by Goldstock with 1:49 to play to make it 17-15. Doss got a good portion of Kelly's shot but it trickled barely over the line and the Tar Heels had a two-goal cushion.
The Tar Heels won the next face-off as well with senior Evan Connell saving the ball from going out of bounds on the sideline opposite the team benches. After Doss saved a shot by Pontrello with 1:29 to save, the senior attackman earned the ground ball and Carolina killed the clock until 14 seconds were remaining. Notre Dame was unable to get a shot off after that and the Tar Heels finished off their amazing comeback win.
The game was the final home game for seven Tar Heel seniors – Evan Connell, Patrick Kelly, Jake Matthai, Mark Rizzo, Zach Powers, Steve Pontrello and Michael Tagliaferri. The win also highlighted Alumni Weekend activities for the Tar Heels with the 1981, 1982, 1986 and 1991 national championship teams being honored at halftime.
