Tar Heels Tie Creighton In Home Opener, 2-2

Friday, August 30

Chapel Hill

7:30 p.m.

North Carolina

0-0-1

Creighton

0-0-1

CREIGHTON

UNC

August 30, 2019 | Men's Soccer

Box Score Box Score Overall Stats Photo Gallery 1 Photo Gallery 2

By: T.J. Scholl

Chapel Hill – No. 6 North Carolina battled with Creighton for a hard fought 2-2 tie on Friday night to kick off the 2019 season. Entering halftime with a 2-0 deficit, the Tar Heels stormed back to tie the game with goals from Mauricio Pineda an Alex Rose in the first 12 minutes of the second half to earn the draw. UNC out shot Creighton 16-7 with a 9-4 edge in shots on goal.

During halftime, the men's soccer program welcomed back over 180 former players and coaches while also honoring former Tar Heel captain Kirk Urso with the dedication of the student section in his name. Kirk's brother, Kyle, and former teammate, Rob Lovejoy, tearfully unveiled the student section banner after a moving video tribute to Urso, who led the 2011 Tar Heels to the National Championship.

Neither team put a dangerous attempt on goal through the first 15 minutes of the game until Creighton's Yudai Tashiro scored the first goal on a curling free kick from 22 yards out in the 18^th minute for the 1-0 lead.

Carolina's best chance of the first half came in the 27^th minute after Mark Salas played the ball through the box to Santiago Herrera. A junior transfer from UCLA, Herrera stopped, planted and made good contact on the ball but Paul Kruse's diving save kept the Heels off the board.

In the 31^st minute Creighton doubled its lead thanks to Dominic Briggs to make it 2-0. Briggs was perfectly set up by a strong individual run from Ziyad Fares who beat several Tar Heel defenders before slipping the ball to the back post to the wide-open Briggs who tapped it home.

After a moving halftime dedication to Kirk Urso, the Tar Heels came out firing on all cylinders. Captain Mauricio Pineda scored the first goal of the season for the Heels to make it 2-1. A ball from Jack Skahan bounced around the box and Pineda was the first one to pounce on it as he smacked it in to the left corner of the net.

That goal seemed to give Carolina life as the attack was relentless for the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Heels eventually evened the score in the 68^th minute thanks to a header at the back post from Alex Rose. The play started with Sebastian Berhalter who crossed the ball across the box to Jelani Pieters. The senior forward settled the ball and lofted it towards the back post for the streaking Rose to climbed the ladder and beat the defender to make it 2-2.

After the game really opened up, Creighton almost ended things in the 88^th minute with a shot that hit the crossbar, but neither side could break the deadlock before overtime.

Freshman Sebastian Berhalter almost ended the game in the 91^st minute with a screamer from 30 yards out, but he barely missed the side netting as it glanced out of bounds.

Neither team could find enough legs to score the game-winning goal as the game ended 2-2 after 110 minutes.

North Carolina will be back in action on Sunday, September 1 at 7:30 when they host UCF in the final game of the Nike Carolina Classic.