Laycock Makes Most Of Chance

The redshirt junior's playing time had been limited to 20 minutes a game due to knee and hamstring injuries during his first three years at North Carolina.

This year, the midfielder has only made seven appearances.

But that didn't stop him from making an impact when his team needed him on Sunday.

Laycock scored two goals to rally the Tar Heels from a 2-0 deficit and send the game into overtime. UNC went on to defeat William & Mary 3-2 in overtime in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Tar Heels will play Rhode Island on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Fetzer Field.

Against the Tribe, UNC coach Elmar Bolowich substituted Laycock in for forward Caleb Norkus with 29:03 remaining in the game and the Tar Heels down 1-0. The move proved to be a perfect decision.

"There is no genius, because in those conditions we were one goal down," Bolowich said. "Had we been one goal up, I never would have played him."

Two minutes after the substitution, the Tribe widened its lead to 2-0. Then Laycock took over.

After the Tribe's Andrew Ross was issued a yellow card, UNC's Danny Jackson lofted the free kick into the box. Laycock headed it into the top right corner of the net.

A similar situation occurred seven minutes later, with the same result.

Jackson again sent a free kick into the box. Chris Carrieri tapped the ball over to Matt Crawford, who lobbed a pass into the air. Laycock used his head again and knocked the ball into the net.

"The conditions were bad, and we couldn't spread guys on the sides," Laycock said. "We were just trying to serve the ball in to the taller guys and see what we could do around the box."

This strategy of using taller players came about due to the weather conditions. The Tar Heels were unable to send long passes ahead to their streaking wing men and were forced to change their attack.

Substituting in the 6-foot-5 Laycock and the 6-3 Ryan Kneipper, combined with 6-3 Michael Bucy, allowed UNC to rise above the Tribe and win balls in the air.

"We needed to have our taller players in for the advantage of the air right around the keeper," Bolowich said. "Using our three tallest players in conditions like that was just fortunate."

Laycock's two quick goals snuffed out all of the Tribe's momentum and allowed UNC to advance to the next round of the tournament.

"I think when you come in as a sub, you just want to find something that changes the game," Laycock said. "The game gets a rhythm and you want to break it up for the better, and that's what I've been trying to do."

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