News

Here we go! Heels are 1-0.

North Carolina opened its 2018 campaign with a convincing 17-10 win over Lafayette
2/3/18
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (courtesy goheels.com) – Ten different Tar Heel players scored goals Saturday afternoon as the ninth-ranked University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team defeated Lafayette 17-10 in both team's season openers at Kenan Stadium. The Tar Heels' balanced scoring effort was led by hat tricks by attackman Timmy Kelly and midfielder Tanner Cook as the Tar Heels won their season opener for the 20th year in a row in front of a crowd of 1,112 fans.

The Tar Heels scored the opening three goals of the game and led by at least three tallies for the final 49:52 of the game. Lafayette pulled within three goals midway through the third quarter at 9-6 but UNC scored six of the next seven goals and had its biggest lead of the game at 15-7 with 8:29 to play.

Lafayette outshot the Tar Heels 46-38 in the game and the Leopards won the battle at the face-off X by a margin of 19-12. But Carolina shot the ball with more accuracy, tallying 17 goals on 27 shots on goal. While Carolina committed 16 turnovers, the Leopards had 24 turnovers and that negated much of the Leopards' edge in face-offs. John Becker won 19 of 31 face-offs for the Leopards and had five ground balls for Lafayette.

UNC had 33 ground balls to 29 for Lafayette. Seventeen different Tar Heels recorded ground balls for UNC led by Riley Graham with five and Ryan Macri with four.

Jonathan Anastos played the whole game in goal for the Tar Heels and made 10 saves while allowing 17 goals. UNC played two goalkeepers. Freshman goalie Luke Millican played the first 50:48 and made eight saves while allowing seven goals. Jack Pezzulla played the final 9:12 in the cage and had three saves and three goals allowed.

Carolina was led in scoring by Timmy Kelly and Chris Cloutier with four points each as Kelly had three goals and an assist and Cloutier rung up two goals and two helpers. Tanner Cook added a hat trick for Carolina and William Perry and Brian Cannon each scored twice. Freshman Colin Munro had a goal and an assist for the Tar Heels while Andy Matthews added a pair of assists for UNC. Lafayette had five starters with two or more points in the game as John Natoli led the way with three goals and an assist and Will McCarthy had two goals and two assists. Robbie Garavente had two goals for Lafayette, Adam Close had two assists and Conor Walters had a goal and an assist.

With two goals Saturday, Chris Cloutier scored a goal in his 21st straight game, matching Jimmy Bitter for the seventh longest goal scoring streak in Tar Heel history. Andy Matthews had two assists for the Tar Heels and he has now posted helpers in 10 straight games, matching John Webster for the ninth longest streak in UNC history.

Carolina never trailed in the game as William Perry, Timmy Kelly and Tanner Cook scored in the opening 8:26 of the contests. After Lafayette twice cut the UNC lead to a pair of goals, Justin Anderson and Chris Cloutier notched unassisted goals in the final 1:30 of the period to give the Heels a four-goal cushion. Each team scored three times in the second quarter as the Tar Heels took a 9-5 lead to the locker room.

Neither team scored in the first seven plus minutes of the third quarter before John Natoli scored with 7:38 left in the third quarter to cut UNC's advantage to 9-6. Timmy Kelly scored 25 seconds later into an empty net after he snared a poor clearing pass by Anastos. Kelly then assisted on Colin Munro's first career tally at 6:07 as the Tar Heels took advantage of a man-up opportunity. Brian Hess scored for Lafayette at 1:35 of the quarter but the Heels then ran off four straight goals to take a 15-7 lead with 8:29 left in the game.

Four different Tar Heels scored in that four-goal run with Tanner Cook, Timmy Kelly, William Perry and Brian Cannon lighting up the scoreboard in that span.

Lafayette did not go away and three straight scores cut the UNC lead to 15-10 with 3:33 to play. But senior Matt Cunningham scored his first career goal with 2:27 to play off an assist by Alex Trippi and then Tanner Cook scored a man-up tally with 1:14 left, via a Chris Cloutier assist, to make the final a seven-goal margin.

The Tar Heels return to Kenan Stadium next Saturday to meet the Furman Paladins at 12 noon.




Pacific Coast Shootout
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2020 Pacific Coast Shootout
Yale 17 •  Michigan 11

2019 Pacific Coast Shootout
Notre Dame 10 • Denver 7

2018 Pacific Coast Shootout
Maryland 11 • North Carolina 7

2017 Pacific Coast Shootout
Virginia 19 • Cornell 18 (OT)

2016 Pacific Coast Shootout
Notre Dame 9 • Maryland 4

2015 Pacific Coast Shootout
Maryland 10 • North Carolina 8

2014
Pacific Coast Shootout
Denver 10 • Notre Dame 7

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