University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
6-7, 1-3ACC
Notre Dame
7-3, 2-2ACC
UNC Drops 14-13 Decision At ND In Final Regular Season Game
April 22, 2017 | Men's Lacrosse
NOTRE DAME, IND. – Bryan Costabile scored off an assist by Sergio Percovic with 2:44 to play in the fourth quarter to lift sixth-ranked Notre Dame to a 14-13 victory over 16th-ranked North Carolina before an Arlotta Stadium record crowd of 5,000 fans Saturday afternoon.
Notre Dame improves to 7-3 with the victory overall and 2-2 in the ACC. North Carolina falls to 6-7 on the season and 1-3 in the ACC. North Carolina next heads to the ACC Tournament next Friday where it will play top-ranked Syracuse at 6 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium in the semifinal round.
Chris Cloutier led the Tar Heels offensively with a season-high four goals while Timmy Kelly had a pair of goals for UNC. Andy Matthews and Tanner Cook each scored one goal and had one assist.
Mikey Wynne led the way for Notre Dame with five goals. Sergio Perkovic had three goals and two assists for Notre Dame and Brendan Gleason and Bryan Costabile each scored two goals and had one assist.
Notre Dame outshot the Tar Heels 33-30 and won the ground ball battle 39-30. The Irish also were dominant in the face-off circle with 19 wins to just 11 for UNC.
Brian Balkam made nine saves for the Tar Heels while Shane Doss had seven for Notre Dame.
The Tar Heels stayed close for much of the way with just 13 turnovers as compared to 19 for Notre Dame. UNC forced seven failed clears by the Irish.
After Timmy Kelly scored 48 seconds into the game, Notre Dame scored four of the last five goals of the first quarter. Jack Rowlett cut a Notre Dame lead to 3-2 with an unassisted goal off a face-off win with 6:41 left in the quarter before Mikey Wynne scored the second of his three first half goals with 11 seconds left in the period.
Unassisted goals by Michael Tagliaferri and Andy Matthews brought Carolina even at 4-4 with 11:06 left in the second quarter but Notre Dame answered with three goals in a span of 3:27 to go up 7-4 on a Mikey Wynne goal at 6:29. UNC's Chris Cloutier scored with three seconds left in the half off an assist by Tanner Cook to pull the Heels within 7-5 at the half. It marked the 17th straight game in which Cloutier has scored a goal, the sixth longest streak in the country.
The Tar Heels played a back-and-forth third quarter with UNC outscoring Fighting Irish 4-3 to cut the lead to a single goal going into the final quarter. The Tar Heels tied the game at 8-8 on a goal by Tanner Cook with 11:05 left in the third quarter before Notre Dame's Mikey Wynne scored back-to-back goals to give Notre Dame a 10-8 lead with 4:31 left in the third period.
North Carolina then scored four goals in a row to take its biggest lead of the game at 12-10 with 10:20 left in the match. Chris Cloutier scored two goals in that run and Justin Anderson and Tate Jozokos also scored for the Tar Heels. But UNC's lead was short-lived. Successive extra-man goals by Notre Dame tied the game and then Sergio Perkovic put the Irish ahead 13-12 with 7:01 to play with the three goals coming in a span of just three minutes. William Perry tied the game for Carolina at 5:56 but UNC had only one possession the remainder of regulation. Costabile's game-winner came at 2:44 and the Irish basically possessed the ball from that point on to seal the win.
The Tar Heels will open play in the 2017 ACC Men's Lacrosse Championship next Friday in the semifinal round. The semifinal games are at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C. Top-seeded Syracuse will play fourth-seeded North Carolina at 6 p.m. Friday and the second semifinal game will feature #2 seed Duke vs. #3 seed Notre Dame at 8:30 p.m.
