Hofstra Starts Strong, Holds Off Tar Heels’ Second-Half Rally

Saturday, March 10

Hempstead, NY

12 Noon

North Carolina

6-2

Hofstra

2-2

North Carolina

Hofstra

Matt Cunningham had his first multi-goal game for the Tar Heels.

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

Hofstra Starts Strong, Holds Off Tar Heels’ Second-Half Rally

March 10, 2018 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score UNC-Hofstra Box Score UNC vs. Hofstra Play by Play

Next up for Tar Heels is a trip to Richmond

By: Dave Lohse

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Hofstra scored the first eight goals of the game and never looked back in defeating the eighth-ranked University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team 12-6 Saturday afternoon at James M. Shuart Stadium.

Carolina has now lost back-to-back games and fell to 6-2 on the season. Hofstra has won two games in a row and the Pride is now 2-2 overall. The victory for Hofstra was the 100^th career win for Pride head coach Seth Tierney.

UNC will look to bounce back into the win column when it plays next Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the University of Richmond. The Tar Heels will be looking to avenge a 6-5 loss to the Spiders suffered last March in Chapel Hill.

On Saturday, Hofstra, which has now won three in a row in the series, outshot the Tar Heels 31-27. Both starting goalkeepers – Jack Pezzulla for Carolina and Jack Concannon for the Pride – made nine saves. The Pride had a decided 37-22 advantage in ground balls and Hofstra's Ryan Gallagher won 13 of 20 face-offs against the Tar Heel combination of Charles Kelly and Riley Graham.

Chris Cloutier led the Tar Heels offensively with two goals and an assist. Matt Cunningham had two goals for the Tar Heels and Sean Morris and Jack Rowlett scored goals for the Heels. Dylan McIntosh led the Pride with a hat trick. Ryan Tierney had two goals and two assists for the Pride while Alex Moeser had two goals and an assist. Jimmy Yanes added a goal and two assists for the Pride.

It was all Hofstra in the first half of the game as six different players scored goals for the Pride. Alex Moeser had his first two goals of the season to lead the Pride as it led 1-0 at the end of the first quarter before going on to outscore the Tar Heels 6-0 in the second quarter. Jimmy Yanes. Ryan Tierney, Dylan Alderman. Kyle Gallagher and Dylan McIntosh also had goals in the first half for Hofstra.

In the first half, Hofstra outshot the Tar Heels 21-10, including a margin of 12-3 in shots on goal. Hofstra had 18 ground balls in the first half while the Tar Heels had seven. Hofstra's Kyle Gallagher won seven of the nine first-half face-offs and he led both teams with six ground balls.

After Dylan McIntosh scored his second goal of the game on a man-up situation with 38 seconds elapsed in the third quarter, the Tar Heels got on the board with a goal by Chris Cloutier, assisted by Justin Anderson, with 13 minutes to play in the third quarter. Cloutier has now scored in 28 successive games dating back to the 2016 season. Cloutier's goal also ended a scoreless streak of 48 minutes and 28 seconds for the Tar Heels dating back to the third quarter of the Denver game last Monday.

After the Pride scored back-to-back goals to stretch its lead to 10-1, the Tar Heels ended the third quarter on a three-goal scoring run.

UNC senior attackman Matt Cunningham scored his second goal of the season with 6:12 left in the third quarter, assisted by long-stick senior defensive midfielder Kyle Mathie, his first point of the season as the Tar Heels converted off a face-off win.

UNC got two more goals in a 17-second span to cut Hofstra's lead to 10-4 with 2:53 left in the third quarter. Cloutier scored an unassisted goal with 3:10 left in the third quarter and then he recorded an assist on Matt Cunningham's goal with 2:53 left in the quarter. The goal by Cunningham gave him the first multi-goal game of his Tar Heel career.

Hofstra ended the Tar Heels' three-goal scoring run as Dylan McIntosh scored his third goal of the game with 12:48 left in the fourth quarter. After another Hofstra goal, Sean Morris scored for the Tar Heels off an assist by Alex Trippi to cut the UNC deficit to 12-5 with 3:43 left in the game. Jack Rowlett then scored an unassisted goal for the Tar Heels in a fast break situation with 2:01 to play in the final period.

NOTING THE TAR HEELS

Hofstra improved to 9-5 all-time against the Tar Heels and it has won three in a row against Carolina.
Chris Cloutier scored two goals in the game. He has scored at least one goal in 28 successive games. Cloutier's 28-game scoring streak is the second longest active streak in the country and it is now the second-longest goal scoring streak in UNC history. The only Tar Heel with a longer goal scoring streak is Marcus Holman at 29 games (2012-13).
Chris Cloutier has now scored 102 goals in his career. He is now tied for 11th in career goal scoring at Carolina. He is now 25th in career points at UNC with 133.