Gray Leads Tar Heels In 2020 Opener

Saturday, February 1

Chapel Hill, N.C

12 p.m. ET

North Carolina

1-0

Colgate

0-1

Colgate

North Carolina

Chris Gray

Photo by: Rebecca Lawson

February 1, 2020 | Men's Lacrosse

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team kicked off the 2020 season with a dominating 19-6 win over Colgate University on Saturday afternoon at Dorrance Field.

Nine Tar Heels had multi-point performances with junior Chris Gray tallying six points (4g, 2a) in his Carolina debut. Sophomore Nicky Solomon and seniors William Perry and Justin Anderson also finished the day with hat tricks. Freshman Lance Tillman, senior Tanner Cook, junior Alex Trippi and sophomore Henry Schertzinger each had two points.

Carolina's 1-0 start marks the 22nd-consecutive season that the Tar Heels have opened with a win. The Raiders drop to 0-1 to begin their season despite a team-best, four goals by Griffin Brown.

The Tar Heels return to action at noon Saturday, February 8, as they play host at Dorrance Field for the second-straight game, this time against Mercer Bears. Carolina opened its 2019 season with a 20-9 victory over Mercer at Centennial High School in Roswell, Ga.

Key Moments
» All-American attack man Chris Gray wasted no time putting up points, opening the game with four of Carolina's seven first quarter goals. Gray connected with William Perry on both of his assists, one in the second period and one in the third.
» The Tar Heels had another seven-goal performance in the second quarter. William Perry picked up his first two goals of his hat-trick performance while co-captain Justin Anderson capped off his own hat trick. Lance Tillman came in off the bench to put up the first two points of his career with two goals.
» Nicky Solomon highlighted the third quarter with three-straight goals for Carolina in less than six minutes. Solomon's hat trick brought him to a career-high five points after his two assists to Gray in the first quarter.
» UNC's offensive momentum slowed in the final quarter as the team upped its substitutions while Colgate capitalized and scored four of its six goals. Junior Ara Atayan found junior Alex Trippi for Carolina's only goal of the quarter.

Other Notable Individual Highlights
» William Perry matched a career-high four points with a hat trick and an assist, and Justin Anderson's hat trick against Colgate marks the fifth of his collegiate career.
» Sophomores Brian Cameron and Henry Schertzinger each matched their collegiate-best point total. Cameron had his fourth two-goal game in addition to an assist while Schertzinger posted his first two assists as a Tar Heel.
» The Heels won 16 of 28 draws at the X between face-off specialists Zac Tucci and Andrew Tyeryar. Tucci also led the Heels in ground balls with eight, the third-most of his career.
» In the goal, preseason honorable mention All-American Caton Johnson made nine saves for an 81.8 save percentage in 40 minutes. Senior Jack Pezzulla finished out the game with five saves.

Notable Team Achievements
» The Tar Heels totaled 19 goals – three man-up – and 11 assists for 30 points on 42 shots. The team also combined for 19 ground balls and nine Heels forced 11 turnovers in their first match-up of the season.
» UNC was locked in with 73.8 percent of its shots on goal.
» Carolina's seven goals in the first quarter matched the team's season high from 2019. Last season, UNC scored seven goals in the third quarter of the season opener at Mercer.
» The Tar Heels' 14 first-half goals are the most since the 2016 NCAA semifinal game versus Loyola (14).
» Carolina scored at least 15 goals four times during the 2019 season.