Men's Soccer Hosts Duke Sunday Night Under The Lights

Matchup: North Carolina (4-1-1, 0-1-0 ACC) vs. Duke (4-1, 1-0 ACC)
Rankings: UNC No. 16/4/10; Duke No. 12/18/24 (United Soccer Coaches/Top Drawer Soccer/College Soccer News)
Date: Sunday September 19, 2021
Site: Chapel Hill (Dorrance Field)
Time: 7 p.m.
TV: ACC Network (watch)

• North Carolina will play its second consecutive ranked Atlantic Coast Conference opponent when it hosts Duke on Sunday September 19 at 7 p.m.
• The ACC Network will televise the game live.
• Carolina is coming off its Atlantic Coast Conference opener, a 4-0 loss at No. 5 Pitt on last Friday night.
• Carolina is No. 4 in this week's Top Drawer Soccer rankings, No. 16 in the United Soccer Coaches poll and No. 10 in the College Soccer News poll.
• Duke is ranked as high as No. 12 in the coaches poll this week.

Tar Heel Tidbits
• UNC is averaging 2.5 goals per game this season, more than double its output of 1.11 gpg in 2020.
• The Tar Heels have outshot their opponents in every game this season and hold a shot advantage of 130-19 through six games.
• Meanwhile, the UNC defense has held opponents scoreless in four of six games in 2021 and is allowing 0.83 goals per game.
• Carolina is 18-5-4 against Duke in the last 27 meetings in the series. The Tar Heels went 3-0 against the Blue Devils during the 2020-21 season with a pair of wins in the Fall to go with one in the Spring.
• UNC is 50-36-10 all-time against Duke.
• The Tar Heels have a scoring margin of +10 (15-5) after six games, ranking No. 4 nationally.
• Cameron Fisher is having a breakout season thus far in 2021, leading the Tar Heels with eight points and tying Ernest Bawa for the team lead with three goals.
• Bawa is second on the team with seven points (three goals & one assist).
• Other multi-goal scorers include freshman Tega Ikoba (two), graduate transfer Chris Sullivan (two) and senior Santiago Herrera (two).

In the National Polls
• Carolina is ranked No. 16 nationally in this week's United Soccer Coaches poll and is No. 4 in the Top Drawer Soccer poll. UNC is No. 10 in the College Soccer News poll.
• Duke is No. 12, 18 and 24 in the same polls.
• Carolina began the season ranked No. 4 in all three polls.

Fisher's Late Goal Leads to 1-0 Win over Campbell
• Carolina got a goal from Cameron Fisher in the 82nd minute and beat Campbell, 1-0, on Sept. 14 at Dorrance Field.
• Fisher scored at the 81:28 mark off a set play that started with a long free kick from Riley Thomas, who lofted a pass from just over midfield to Fisher for his third goal of the season.
• The teams played a scoreless first half with UNC outshooting the Fighting Camels by a 1-0 margin.
• UNC peppered Campbell with eight second-half shots, however, and nearly scored a goal early in the period when Aldair Sanchez hit the post with his shot with just over 42 minutes remaining.

Carolina Drops ACC Opener at No. 5 Pitt, 4-0
• The fifth-ranked Pittsburgh men's soccer team grabbed an early lead and beat No. 2 North Carolina, 4-0, in a key, early-season ACC matchup on Sept. 10 at Ambrose Urbanic Field.
• The Panthers took a 3-0 lead before halftime and controlled the match's tempo throughout most of the night.
• The game was a meeting of two of the top teams in the nation and the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division. Pitt and UNC finished first and second, respectively, in the division before both teams advanced to the NCAA College Cup semifinals in 2020.
• Rodrigo Almeda led all scorers with two goals for Pitt, while Veljko Petkovic had a score and two assists and Valentin Noel had a goal and an assist.
• UNC out-shot the Panthers in the game, 16-8.

Tar Heels Win at No. 22 Davidson, 3-0
• Freshman Tega Ikoba scored twice as the second-ranked Tar Heels grabbed a big road win, 3-0, at No. 22 Davidson on Sept. 6 in Davidson, N.C.
• Fifth-year senior Santiago Herrera also scored for Carolina, which improved to 3-0-1 in 2021 and picked up its first victory over a ranked opponent this Fall.
• Ikoba opened the scoring with his first career goal in the 34th minute, taking a beautiful pass from fellow freshman Ken Bellini as he streaked down the right sideline and fed Ikoba in the box for a 1-0 lead.
• That slim Tar Heel advantage held for more than the next 50 minutes of tense action between the in-state foes until Herrera gathered a loose ball in front of the net and scored at the 84:12 mark for a 2-0 lead.
• Ikoba iced the game in the 89th minute when he took a pass from Mark Winhoffer and scored to make it 3-0 at the 88:06 mark.

UNC Blanks Georgia Southern
• Carolina got a goal and an assist off the bench from both Ernest Bawa and Cameron Fisher and beat Georgia Southern, 3-0, on Sept. 3 at Dorrance Field. With the victory, the Tar Heels improved to 2-0-1 this season.
• Carolina also got an assist from freshman Ken Bellini and a goal from graduate transfer Gerit Wintermeyer.
• Bawa came off the bench and scored his team-leading third goal in the third game of the season.
• Bawa scored his third goal of the season with 2:41 remaining in the first half on a free kick. After an Eagle defender took down Jonathan Jimenez and was whistled for a foul, Bawa took the ensuing try from just outside the 18-yard box and curved it into the upper left corner of the net. Carolina out-shot the Eagles, 6-1, in the first half.

Opening Weekend Recap
• Carolina opened the 2021 regular season with two home games: a 7-0 win over Bucknell (Aug. 26) and a 1-1 tie with VCU (Aug. 29).
• UNC started the season by breezing to a 7-0 win over Bucknell, posting its highest-scoring game in five years.
• UNC scored three goals in the opening 20 minutes and led, 5-0, at halftime. Carolina scored more goals in the first half than it did in any game all season in 2020 (three on two occasions).
• The seven-goal output overall was UNC's highest single-game figure since beating UNC Asheville, 7-0, on Oct. 11, 2016.
• Graduate transfer Chris Sullivan scored twice in his first game as a Tar Heel, while Cameron Fisher and Jonathan Jimenez each tallied a goal and an assist.
• On Sunday, Carolina got a second-half goal from Ernest Bawa and tied Virginia Commonwealth, 1-1.
• UNC out-shot VCU, 50-4, and took 17 corner kicks to the Rams' one, but VCU keeper Mario Sequeira made 13 saves on the night.
• Carolina dominated most of the first half, out-shooting the Rams by a 19-4 margin in the opening 45 minutes, only to see VCU take a 1-0 lead on a goal by Damian Gallegos at the 40:45 mark. Six of UNC's first-half shots were on-goal, but Sequeira made six saves before the break.
• With the shot margin standing at 37-4, UNC finally connected when Bawa tied the score at 1-all with 7:29 remaining in the second half, scoring from the right of the box into the lower left corner of the net.

Preseason Honors for Smir
• Goalkeeper Alec Smir was named to Top Drawer Soccer's Preseason Best XI Third Team for the 2021 season.
• Smir also picked up third-team preseason All-America honors from College Soccer News.
•Smir, who earned second-team All-ACC honors in 2020 after leading the conference in shutouts with 10,

Tar Heels Picked 2nd In ACC Coastal Division
• The Atlantic Coast Conference released its 2021 preseason men's soccer poll, and the league's coaches have picked UNC to finish second in the Coastal Division.
• Tar Heel graduate student goalkeeper Alec Smir also grabbed a spot on the ACC's 2021 Preseason Watch List.
• The ACC's coaches predicted Pitt to win both the Coastal Division and the overall championship. The Panthers picked up nine first-place votes for the divisional title and 64 overall points to UNC's three votes and 58 points. Virginia Tech was third with 40 points.
• Clemson was picked to finish first in the Atlantic Division, edging second-place Wake Forest. The Tigers finished second behind PItt with three votes as the overall champion, while Carolina was third with two.

Preseason Scrimmages
• The Tar Heels played a pair of exhibition scrimmages prior to the 2021 regular season, one at home and one away.
• Carolina tied defending NCAA champion Marshall, 1-1, in a scrimmage on August 15 at a wet Dorrance Field in Chapel Hill. The game was a rematch of two teams that met in the NCAA College Cup semifinals a season earlier. The Thundering Herd edged UNC in that match, 1-0, and went on to win the national championship two days later.After a scoreless first half, Marshall took a 1-0 lead in the 58th minute on its first shot attempt of the game. Pedro Dolabella scored from 25 yards out, driving a shot over the head of Tar Heel keeper Alec Smir to make it 1-0. Carolina tied it 12 minutes later with just over 21 minutes remaining when Ernest Bawa scored from the right side to tie the score at 1-1.
• On August 20, UNC dropped a 1-0 decision in a scrimmage at Liberty.

2020 Season Recap
• North Carolina (9-5-4) made its ninth appearance in the men's NCAA College Cup in 2020, making an unexpected run to the national semifinals as an unseeded, at-large bid.
• Carolina made its seventh trip to the College Cup in the last 13 seasons.
• Along the way to the College Cup, the 16th-ranked Tar Heels advanced past No. 14 Charlotte on penalty kicks and beat both No. 5 seed Stanford and No. 4 Wake Forest.
• Tenth-ranked and eventual NCAA champion Marshall edged the Tar Heels, 1-0, in the national semifinals.
• UNC went 9-5-4 overall, including a 7-2-3 combined mark in ACC play.
• UNC went 5-2-2 against teams ranked in the United Soccer Coaches poll, including 3-0 against top-five teams (wins over Pittsburgh, Stanford and Wake Forest).

Carlos Somoano
• Eleventh-year UNC head coach Carlos Somoano entered the 2021 season ranked fourth in the nation in winning percentage among active Division I head coaches.
• Somoano has a 141-43-31 career record, good for a program-best .730 winning percentage.
• Somoano reached the summit of collegiate soccer when he led the Tar Heels to the 2011 NCAA title, becoming just the second rookie head coach in NCAA history to win a national championship. He returned to the College Cup with his Tar Heel squad in 2016 and 2017, marking the third appearance in the sports ultimate destination under his leadership.
• Somoano has guided nine of his 10 squads to NCAA postseason play. Six of those teams reached at least the NCAA quarterfinals, and four reached the College Cup.

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Players Mentioned

Ernest Bawa

Ken Bellini

Cameron Fisher

Santiago Herrera

Tega Ikoba

Jonathan Jimenez

Aldair Sanchez

Alec Smir

Chris Sullivan

Riley Thomas

Mark Winhoffer

Gerit Wintermeyer