University of North Carolina Athletics
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6-5, 1-1ACC
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7-5, 0-3ACC
Tar Heels Swamp Cavs For Breschi's 100th Win At UNC
April 10, 2017 | Men's Lacrosse
With the win, the Tar Heels rewarded UNC head coach Joe Breschi with his 100th win as UNC's head coach, improving to 100-45 in his nine years as UNC head mentor. With the win, the Tar Heels broke a two-game losing streak and improved to 6-5 on the season and 1-1 in the ACC. Virginia fell to 7-5 with the loss and 0-3 in the ACC.
Breschi's 100th win at Carolina came on his 49th birthday and Sunday's match also marked his 300th game as a collegiate head coach - 155 at Ohio State and 145 at North Carolina.
The heroes were many for Carolina, led by Stephen Kelly, who tied the school record for face-offs won in a game with 23, matching the total Shane Walterhoefer had against Ohio State on April 12, 2008. Kelly also tied the school record for ground balls in a game with 15. This marked the seventh time a Tar Heel has garnered 15 ground balls in a game, the last time was by Walterhoefer against Providence on March 11, 2009.
Kelly now has 658 face-off wins in his career, the second most in UNC history. He passed R.G. Keenan on the career chart on Sunday night. Keenan had 646 career wins. Walterhoefer holds the school record with 723.
Offensively, the Tar Heels had a balanced scoring attack with Luke Goldstock leading the way with three goals and an assist for four points. Freshmen midfielders William Perry and Tanner Cook each had three points for Carolina. Perry had a goal and two assists and Cook scored two goals and added an assist. Twelve different Tar Heels had points in the game. Michael Tagliaferri and William McBride each had two goals for the Tar Heels while Andy Matthews, Chris Cloutier and Justin Anderson each had a goal and an assist.
Virginia's Ryan Conrad had three goals and an assist to lead the Cavaliers in the scoring column while Zed Williams had three goals and Michael Kraus scored twice.
Brian Balkam played the whole way for UNC and he made 13 saves in the match while Griffin Thompson made 15 saves for Virginia.
Carolina dominated the game statistically, outshooting the Cavaliers 57-40 and winning the ground ball battle 50-28. UNC won 23 of the 30 face-offs thanks to Kelly. The Tar Heels committed a season-high turnover total of 23, including 15 in the second half while Virginia had 14 turnovers.
Another key statistic for the Tar Heels was the work of the extra-man unit which went four-for-four after coming into the game just five for 24 on the extra-man for the season.
Virginia opened the scoring with a goal by Joe French with 2:16 elapsed in the first quarter. William McBride tied the game off an assist by Brian Cannon 33 seconds later. UNC then scored back-to-back unassisted goals off the sticks of Michael Tagliaferri at 11:27 (less than a minute after McBride's first goal) and then another score by William McBride at 3:32. With that goal, McBride matched his career high for goals in a game with two and it marked the second straight game against Virginia in which he has scored twice. Virginia cut the UNC lead to 3-2 with 48 seconds left in the opening period on an unassisted goal by Michael Kraus.
Carolina outscored the Cavaliers 6-0 in the second quarter while outshooting the Cavaliers 18-11 in the period. Both goalkeepers – Brian Balkam for Carolina and Griffin Thompson for UVA – made five saves in the second quarter with Balkam pitching a shutout in the period and Thompson preventing the carnage for Virginia from being worse. Tanner Cook and Luke Goldstock each scored twice in the quarter for Carolina.
Cook scored his first goal of the quarter 30 seconds into the period on an extra-man opportunity with an assist to Goldstock. Exactly two minutes later, Tagliaferri notched his second goal of the game, scoring unassisted from the right side.
Goldstock then scored two goals in a row for UNC. He scored off an assist by Chris Cloutier at 10:49 and then scored off an assist by Tanner Cook at 5:41. UNC added to its lead with 3:28 left in the first half when the Tar Heels capitalized on a situation where the Cavaliers had two men in the penalty box. Timmy Kelly had the goal, assisted by William Perry. Timmy Kelly then forced a turnover in the closing seconds of the half and Tanner Cook scored his second goal of the contest in an unsettled situation with an assist by short-stick defensive midfielder Tate Jozokos. The goal with 12 seconds left in the half put UNC up 9-2.
The Cavaliers got back in the game by outscoring the Tar Heels 6-2 in the third quarter. The two teams traded four goals in the opening six minutes of the half with Zed Williams and Michael Kraus scoring for Virginia while Andy Matthews and Chris Cloutier notched tallies for UNC. But turnovers plagued Carolina over the course of the next three minutes and Virginia tallied four goals in a span of just 2:36, including two goals by Ryan Conrad. Conrad's goal with 6:20 left in the third quarter cut Carolina's lead to 11-8. But the Heels kept the Cavs off the scoreboard the remainder of the third quarter before the teams played an even fourth quarter.
The Tar Heels got two goals just six seconds apart to open the scoring in the fourth quarter. William Perry scored an extra-man goal for the Tar Heels with 12:34 left in the quarter off an assist by Andy Matthews. Stephen Kelly won the ensuing face-off and scored six seconds later to give the Tar Heels a five-goal lead at 13-8. Carolina sealed the win with goal by Goldstock, assisted by Perry, at 5:33, and a goal by Justin Anderson with the 30-second shot clock on and 3:20 left in the game. Anderson's goal sealed the win and put UNC up 15-10 at the time. Virginia scored twice in the last 30 seconds of the game but UNC had built a five-goal lead by that point. The win was Carolina's fifth straight in regular-season meetings against the Cavaliers - 2013, 2015 and 2017 in Charlottesville and 2014 and 2016 in Chape Hill.
The Tar Heels will return to Fetzer Field to play currently second-ranked but potentially top-ranked Syracuse on Saturday, April 15 at 4 p.m. in the final regular-season home game scheduled to be played at the historic facility. Fetzer Field opened as a track and field facility in 1935 and has been the home of UNC men's lacrosse since 1949. It will be torn down at the end of this season and a new combination lacrosse and soccer stadium will be built on the same site.
It will be Senior Day at Fetzer Field with all of the Tar Heel seniors and redshirt juniors being honored in pre-game ceremonies. This group includes Brett Bedard, Luke Goldstock, Mark Rizzo (5th year senior), Tate Jozokos, Stephen Kelly, Austin Pifani, Michael Tagliaferri (5th year senior), Luke Walsh, Peyton Klawinski, Ryan Macri (redshirt junior), Jack Lambert (redshirt junior) and Brian Balkam (redshirt junior).
It will also be alumni weekend in Chapel Hill with UNC's 1981 and 1982 NCAA championship teams being honored between the first and second quarters of the Tar Heels' game against Syracuse.
