MLAX Battles To 17-16 Win Over No. 20 Denver

Saturday, March 5

Chapel Hill, N.C.

12 PM

North Carolina

Denver

Chris Gray (4) scored his 100th and 101st goals as a Tar Heel in Saturday's win over Denver.

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

March 5, 2022 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Behind six goals from graduate student attackman Chris Gray, the eighth-ranked North Carolina men's lacrosse team beat No. 20 Denver 17-16 Saturday afternoon in a back-and-forth battle at Dorrance Field.

The Tar Heels improved to 5-1 overall and now dive into Atlantic Coast Conference play, hosting two-time defending NCAA champion Virginia on Thursday evening at 8.

A beautiful day for lots of goals and a Carolina Victory! 😎 Highlights from today's win vs Denver ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/TJ5321pUJt — UNC Men's Lacrosse (@UNCMensLacrosse) March 5, 2022

Saturday, on a mild afternoon at Dorrance that turned sunny at game time, Carolina took an early lead on a goal by Jacob Kelly just 46 seconds into play and still held onto a one-goal lead, 4-3, at the end of the first period. Denver opened the second quarter with a goal just 35 seconds in and then got another 14 seconds after that to pull ahead 5-4. UNC's Lance Tillman tied it up at 5-all and then Denver pulled ahead again before Carolina closed the half with goals by Nicky Solomon and Gray, who scored coming out of a timeout with 1:41 remaining in the period, for a 7-6 lead at the break.

The Tar Heels scored the first five goals out of halftime to reach a streak of seven in a row, flipping DU's 6-5 lead at the 9:40 mark in the second quarter to a 12-6 Carolina advantage after an unassisted goal by Tillman with 8:38 to go in the third quarter.

But the Pioneers kept pressing on, scoring two in a row then, after a goal by Carolina's Henry Schertzinger, adding a string of three more to make it 13-11 UNC heading into the fourth quarter.

"I don't think we relaxed, I think they just started to play better and canned their shots, much like we did at the start of the third quarter," UNC coach Joe Breschi said.

The Tar Heels opened the quarter with a goal by Alex Breschi, assisted by Gray, to go up 14-11. Denver then scored three times in 66 seconds to tie the game at 14-14. The Pioneers took the late lead on a man-up goal by Noah Manning with 9:44 remaining in the game then added another 42 seconds later to go up 16-14 after five unanswered goals.

Carolina used a late three-goal run to claim the win. After Solomon scored on a pass from Gray with 6:35 to play, Gray scored a man-up goal on an assist from Connor Maher. The goal was Gray's 100^th as a Tar Heel and tied the game, but he wasn't finished yet.

With 1:19 remaining, Gray took a pass from Schertzinger and fired a ball past Denver keeper Jack Thompson for what would prove to be the gamewinner. It was the sixth of the day for Gray, who has now scored six or more goals in a game five times as a Tar Heel.

"The resiliency of our group, to continue to battle and to make plays and to not panic has been the biggest thing about this group," Joe Breschi said. "We just continue to play, and I think it's Chris Gray's influence offensively. And Collin Krieg made three spectacular saves at the end to solidify the comeback for us. You're up so big, they come back, take the lead by two and then Collin Krieg gets a couple of stops, we slipped into a zone late to try to change things up and it worked. Collin was able to see those shots, and then at the other end, just the poise and composure of our three senior attackmen to make those plays and Chris Gray to get the gamewinner. I couldn't be more proud of the resiliency of this group. It's hard to win lacrosse games and that was a very good team."

Krieg finished the day with 14 saves for the Tar Heels. Breschi also highlighted the play of senior Zac Tucci, who won 12 of 25 face-offs.

The Tar Heels took 55 shots to Denver's 40 and led 34-18 in ground balls, including 10-5 in the fourth quarter.

Denver (3-3) got hat tricks from JJ Sillstrop, Jack Hannah and Alex Simmons, with Sillstrop also leading the way in assists with three. Thompson made 14 saves for the Pioneers.