The No. 11 North Carolina men’s lacrosse team had been in this position too many times for its liking.
Going into the fourth quarter UNC held an 11-10 led just to allow the visiting No. 5 Princeton Tigers to rally with minutes left to leave the Tar Heels on the short end — again.
But this time around UNC wouldn’t let that happen.
Despite giving up another fourth quarter lead late in a game, UNC earned a 16-15 statement win Saturday night by scoring twice in the final minute of regulation.
“We’ve been through some tough games this year losing fourth quarter leads,” coach Joe Breschi said. “We were due.”
In a game that featured six players recording a hat trick or better, scoring wasn’t a problem for anyone, but in crunch time, it was a defensive stand and two Tar Heels earning their hat trick that was the difference in the game.
After a go ahead goal by Princeton with under two minutes left, junior RG Keenan lost a face-off and gave Princeton a chance to run the clock down.
But Keenan wasn’t going to quit.
The face-off specialist hustled back on defense and quickly caused a turnover to give the Tar Heels a chance to tie the game.
“The play of the day I think was RG Keenan taking the ball away,” Breschi said. “Under a minute and 20 (seconds) to go, and he takes the ball away from their senior captain.”
Once they got the ball back, the Tar Heels went all out to score a goal as quickly as possible.
On a rebounded shot by sophomore Jimmy Bitter, the Tar Heels battled to regain control of the ball and eventually senior Davey Emala scooped the ball and scored to earn a hat trick and tie the game.
Keenan’s 20th face-off win of the day gave UNC the ball back with just under 40 seconds left, and after a pair of shots by senior Marcus Holman and a Princeton timeout, UNC had time for one more play.
“It was a set play,” sophomore midfielder Chad Tutton said. “We kind of went off on a tangent because obviously the defense isn’t going to play exactly how you draw it up.”
With seconds left on the clock, Bitter found Tutton for a hard overhanded low bounce shot that whizzed past Princeton’s Matt O’Connor. The goal gave Tutton a hat trick and a win to the Tar Heels.
“Both defenders went to Jimmy,” Tutton said. “I kind of had a wide open step down from about 12 yards.”
For a UNC team that has had its share of losses in tight games against ranked opponents, the win couldn’t be sweeter considering the team’s recent history.
“We’ve been in this situation so many times, and we’ve come out on the wrong end of it,” sophomore Joey Sankey said. “It’s an emotional win. It feels awesome to be on the right side of it.”
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