University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Notre Dame
Hello Championship Weekend: Heels Whip #3 Irish
May 22, 2016 | Men's Lacrosse
COLUMBUS, OHIO – The University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team is headed to the NCAA Tournament semifinals for the first time since 1993 after beating third-seeded Notre Dame 13-9 Sunday afternoon at Ohio Stadium in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals before a crowd of 5,411 fans. Carolina advances to the NCAA Final Four at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pa., next Saturday where it will play #7 seed Loyola at 12 noon in a game to be nationally televised on ESPN2. The second semifinal game will feature top seed Maryland versus fifth seeded Brown. UNC is the only unseeded team to reach the Final Four in 2016.
The Heels never trailed in the game and held Notre Dame to just three goals in the first three quarters. In fact, UNC held Notre Dame without a goal from the 19-second mark of the first quarter until 1:52 remained in the third quarter, a span of 27 minutes, 27 seconds. During that span, the game went from a 2-2 tie to a 10-2 UNC lead.
Carolina sophomore goalkeeper Brian Balkam matched his career high with 14 saves in the game, including eight in the fourth quarter when Notre Dame outshot the Tar Heels 19-3. But by then, UNC had built a nine-goal advantage and despite a late five-goal run by Notre Dame UNC had enough of an edge to head to the final four by improving to 10-6 on the season. Notre Dame fell to 11-4 with the loss. The NCAA quarterfinal win broke an eight-game losing streak in that round for Carolina and was the Tar Heels' first NCAA round of eight win since it beat Army in 1993 at Kenan Stadium.
Balkam's 14 saves matched the career high for the St. James, N.Y., redshirt sophomore. He also had 14 saves in Carolina's 16-8 win over Virginia on April 10, 2016.
Carolina was led offensively by Steve Pontrello with four goals and two assists while Chris Cloutier had three goals and three assists on the afternoon. Pontrello scored UNC's last four goals of the game while Cloutier had a first half hat trick. Luke Goldstock and Michael Tagliaferri each had two goals for UNC and Timmy Kelly had a goal and an assist. Patrick Kelly had a goal for UNC and Stephen Kelly had an assist.
Notre Dame was led by Mikey Wynne who had four goals while Matt Kavanagh had two goals for the Fighting Irish. Both Ryder Garnsey and Drew Schantz had a goal and an assist for Notre Dame.
Pontrello recorded his 12th career hat trick while Cloutier had his fourth career hat trick. Pontrello's six points matched his career high, which he had earlier this year against Manhattan, Duke and Notre Dame. Cloutier's six points were on short of his career high of seven set against Richmond earlier this year. His three assists versus the Fighting Irish matched the career high he had earlier this year in the win over the Spiders on March 19.
UNC had also beaten Notre Dame in the regular season 17-15 on April 23 in Chapel Hill. But that game was very different from Sunday's encounter. In that game, Carolina trailed Notre Dame 15-10 with less than 10 minutes left in the game before the Tar Heels ran off the last seven goals of the game to win and secure the ACC regular-season co-championship. In Sunday's NCAA quarterfinal match, Cloutier's goal with 12 seconds left in the first quarter broke a 2-2 tie and started an 8-0 goal scoring run that put UNC up 10-2 with 4:31 left in the third quarter. Carolina's biggest leads of the game came at 12-3 with 14:06 left in the final period and at 13-4 with 12:30 left in the game. Notre Dame scored five goals over the last 8:40 of the contest to pull within four goals at the end.
Notre Dame outshot the Tar Heels 43-34 but Balkam matched his career high in saves to make the difference in the game. He also had 14 saves against Virginia in the regular season. Shane Doss finished with 10 saves for Notre Dame while allowing 13 goals. During the course of the season, Notre Dame allowed double digits in goals only three times – 17 against Carolina on April 23, 13 against Carolina Sunday and 10 versus Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
Stephen Kelly again was a monster at the face-off X for the Tar Heels as he won 17 of 25 face-offs. He also led the Tar Heels with 11 ground balls. It marked the sixth time this year that Kelly has won 17 or more face-offs in a game and the fourth time he has had double digits in ground balls. UNC finished with a 26-23 edge in ground balls. The Tar Heels struggled in the clearing game as they went only 18 for 25 on the day. Carolina had 16 turnovers while Notre Dame had just 10. Nine of Carolina's 16 turnovers came in the fourth quarter.
The Tar Heels opened the scoring 3:16 into the game on a fast break goal by Michael Tagliaferri. Notre Dame equalized after the Tar Heels turned the ball over on a clearing attempt with Mikey Wynne scoring at 8:41 of the quarter. UNC retook the lead at 2-1 with 3:32 left in the first quarter as Patrick Kelly dodged the left alley and finished with his left hand from eight yards past Notre Dame goalkeeper Shane Doss. After a long possession at the end of the first quarter, Notre Dame tied the game at 2-2 with a goal by Matt Kavanagh with 19.7 seconds left in the period. Carolina won the ensuing face-off and Stephen Kelly fed Chris Cloutier for the go-ahead goal with 12.6 seconds to play in the period. That goal gave Carolina the lead for good.
UNC scored the only three goals of the second quarter, all rattled off in a span of just 2:32. On the first two goals, UNC attackmen were left wide open on the crease and took passes from behind to score one-on-one against Doss. Luke Goldstock tallied at 10:39, assisted by Steve Pontrello. That goal ran Goldstock's scoring streak to 33 straight games, matching the 10th longest streak in UNC history. Fifty-three seconds later, Chris Cloutier was left alone on the crease and scored off a feed from Timmy Kelly. Then, at 8:07 of the period, Cloutier registered a goal on a behind-his-back shot off an assist by Pontrello to make it 6-2 in favor of Carolina. It marked the first hat trick for Cloutier since March 19 versus Richmond and it was his fourth hat trick of the campaign.
The Tar Heels came out on fire with three goals in the first 3:47 of the third period. Michael Tagliaferri scored his second goal of the game on a bounce shot with 13:09 left and then at the 11:56 mark, Timmy Kelly buried a shot just inside the top right corner of the goal to make it 8-2 Carolina. UNC continued its scoring run as Goldstock tallied off an assist from Cloutier at 11:13. The Heels then made it 10-2 on a goal by Pontrello, assisted by Cloutier at 4:31 of the quarter. Wynne scored for Notre Dame with 1:52 left in the third quarter off an assist by Drew Schantz, the first goal for the Fighting Irish since 19 seconds were left in the first quarter. Pontrello then scored with 1:10 left in the third quarter on a shot from near the midfield line as the Fighting Irish were pressing out defensively and left their net unattended.
UNC headed into the fourth quarter with an eight-goal lead at 11-3 but Notre Dame had a furious comeback in it in the fourth quarter to make things interesting. Pontrello scored two of the first three goals of the fourth quarter to make it 13-4 before Notre Dame ran off the last five goals of the contest.
UNC's win improved its record to 10-6 and marked the eighth straight year the Heels have posted double digits in wins under head coach Joe Breschi's tutelage.
