University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Kick The Doors In
May 30, 2016 | Men's Lacrosse, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
PHILADELPHIA – Their backs were against the wall. Of course their backs were against the wall. When it came down to it, with a national championship on the line for the Carolina men's lacrosse team, their backs were against the wall.
At breakfast Monday morning, head coach Joe Breschi called to mind Ray Lewis' speech to the Baltimore Ravens before the Super Bowl in 2000. "Kick the doors in!" he told his team. No one expected them to be here, maybe in the tournament at all, and never had an unseeded team won the NCAA championship. Kick the doors in, he'd said.
After a furious opening half, action settled down in the final 30 minutes. Carolina had surrendered a four-goal lead to #1 Maryland, and the Terrapins appeared to be in control after taking a 13-11 lead in the fourth quarter. But with fewer than four minutes remaining, Luke Goldstock converted on an extra-man opportunity to pull the Tar Heels within one. Just 31 seconds later, after a furious faceoff battle, Kyle Mathie picked up a ground ball, and Patrick Kelly knotted the score.
Three minutes and twenty-two seconds remained on the clock. The next three minutes and eighteen seconds were a mad scramble. There were three turnovers, a timeout, two shots on goal and four ground balls. With four seconds to play, Carolina goalie Brian Balkam saved a shot from Maryland's Matt Rambo. But at the other end of the field, Goldstock was pushed by Maryland's Mike McCarney. He reacted to the push and was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
"It's just a bang-bang play," Goldstock said later. "I wasn't thinking, and I can't blame that on anyone but myself."
The penalty meant that not only would Carolina be a man down for the next four seconds, but the ball would go back to Maryland. The Terrapins ran the clock out, knowing the penalty also meant they'd get possession to start the sudden victory overtime.
For Carolina, their backs were against the wall. But their backs had been against the wall before.
Their backs had been against the wall ten weeks ago in Amherst, Massachusetts, when the Tar Heels lost 14-9 at UMass and were staring at a record of 3-3, with conference play looming. In the locker room afterward, the players had a heart-to-heart, challenging one another to remember what it means to wear 'Carolina' on their chests, what they represent on the field. Two days later, they won at Manhattan, 18-2.
Their backs were against the wall in Kenan Stadium on Senior Day, when they faced then-#1 Notre Dame. The Tar Heels were 7-5 and 2-1 in the ACC. A win would give them the top seed in the conference tournament. A loss, and things wouldn't be pretty. Such is the margin of error in college lacrosse. It wasn't looking good in the fourth quarter, when the Tar Heels trailed by five goals. They would need the biggest second-half comeback in school history to get the win. But they did it, scoring seven unanswered for a 17-15 final. Without that stunning comeback, the Tar Heels may not have been selected for the NCAA Tournament.
Three weeks ago, coming off a loss to Syracuse in the ACC Tournament, the Tar Heels gathered in the film room to watch the NCAA Tournament selection show. They were hopeful of an at-large bid, but certainly not sure. They saw Navy grab an at-large bid, then Johns Hopkins. "And we're like, 'Oh no, when are we going to be up there?" Breschi remembered. Finally, the Tar Heels heard their name called. They'd be traveling to Wisconsin to take on Marquette, the upstart program that had upset Denver in the Big East championship and earned the #6 seed. "We just talked about being zero and zero, and it's a new season, a new opportunity" Breschi said. "They just said, 'Look man, we're starting from scratch.'"
So they went to work, beating Marquette on the road, hanging on for a 10-9 win. The next weekend, they faced Notre Dame again, this time in Columbus, Ohio. After trading early scores, the Tar Heels again put seven straight in the net against the Irish, and never looked back, finishing with a 13-9 win to take the team to championship weekend for the first time since 1993.
Saturday in Philadelphia, the Tar Heels exploded out of the locker room, building a 10-2 lead against Loyola and securing an 18-13 win and a trip to the national championship game.
And so here they were, once again, with their backs against the wall. A man down, without the ball, against the nation's best team. Next goal wins. Maryland had converted on three prior extra-man opportunities, and with another score, would win the national championship.
"I knew that we had struggled a little bit, man down, and usually that's one of the strong points of our team," Balkam said. "So what better time to make a stop on man down, than in overtime, to win the national championship?"
What better time indeed. Thirty-four seconds into overtime, the ball was on the stick of Maryland's Connor Kelly, who'd led the Terps with four goals on the afternoon. He reeled back, and Tar Heel senior defender Zach Powers flew at him. If he wasn't going to stop the shot, he was going to make it tough. "It was that or nothing, I guess," Powers said. "I was just trying to do my best to deter the shot, and I just kind of gave myself. I don't know if I hit it, it just happened so quickly."
The ball didn't hit Powers, but it did hit Balkam's body. "It rotated quick," Balkam said. "Gave up the shot that I wanted to see. Lucky to make the save, clear the ball."
He covered it and cleared the ball upfield. Carolina called timeout with 3:06 to play. Out of the break, Carolina's Chris Cloutier unleashed a shot that was stuffed by Maryland's Kyle Bernlohr. In the scramble for the ground ball, McCarney cross-checked Goldstock. The penalty was called, giving Carolina the extra man.
Now, they could afford to be patient, passing the ball around the perimeter against the zone defense to find a good look. Cloutier, a lefty, bounced on the right wing, looking for a seam. He passed up to Patrick Kelly up top, who passed to Michael Tagliaferri. Cloutier stepped toward the middle and showed his stick. Tagliaferri found him. Cloutier shot from his hip around Maryland's Greg Danseglio.
"I was a little hesitant to take that shot, because I was pretty heartbroken from the stuff before that," Cloutier said. "That's a play that 'Tags' and I do quite a bit in practice and throughout the year. And when he threw the ball to me and I was hands-free, I just thought I could take it, and luckily, it went in."
Cloutier is being a bit modest here. There was no amount of luck involved, not for the man who set an NCAA Tournament record with 19 goals. The rocket cut through the air and connected with the back of the net. Championship.
Their backs had been against the wall, again, and again they had come through. The win gave Carolina the school's first NCAA title since 1991. Incidentally, the alumni from that 1991 team were recognized at halftime for the 25th anniversary of their championship. They were there after the game, too, celebrating with Carolina's newest champions.
Kick the doors in. The Tar Heels had done just that. Their backs were against the wall. So they kicked the doors in.
