Haus Falls to Former Team

After all, Haus coached the Blue Jays to consecutive national final fours before taking the head job at his alma mater this season.

But even Haus' first-hand knowledge of the No. 5 Blue Jays' personnel couldn't have prepared him for his team's flat performance.

The Johns Hopkins defense man-handled the 14th-ranked Tar Heels' floundering offense, which couldn't capitalize on its chances for another game, dropping UNC 12-4 in front of 1,825.

"That really doesn't have anything to do with it," Haus said of playing against his old team. "We just tried to get ready to play a game and see if we could beat a top-10 team. And it's obviously very clear that we're not even close to being a top-10 team right now."

The Blue Jays' close defensive unit of seniors Shawn Nadelen, Brendan Shook and Brandon Testa -- who all have strong chances of earning All-American honors -- kept the Tar Heels (4-4) away from the goal and forced them to take the bulk of their 28 shots from eight yards and out.

Nadelen was matched up against UNC leading scorer Jeff Sonke, and with help from his fellow defensemen, limited the preseason All-American attackman to two goals on nine shots.

North Carolina's first goal didn't come until 15 seconds were left in the second quarter. By that point, the Blue Jays (3-2) had already run off the game's opening six goals and had a comfortable lead.

The Tar Heels created numerous scoring opportunities for themselves, but continuing a season-long trend, they simply couldn't take advantage of any of them.

With the Blue Jays leading 2-0 and UNC a man up, attackman Andrew Lucas took a shot that was deflected by Hopkins goalie Rob Scherr (12 saves) and landed in the crease just in front of the goal line. Hopkins cleared the ball and ended the threat.

With a little more than seven minutes remaining in the third quarter and Hopkins leading 6-1, Austin Garrison took a feed from Sonke in front of the goal, but his shot was also deflected by Scherr and, again, stopped inches in front of the line.

"I just put it low and away," said Garrison, who had an assist. "Scherr's pretty good but low and away for any goalie is tough on him, shooting away from his body. It just kind of got trapped up in the dirt. Give him credit. I don't know if he got a foot on it or what. It was close but not close enough."

Attackman Steven Will had a diving goal waved off because the officials ruled he was in the crease, and Joel Miller had a shot saved at point-blank range with no one to beat but Scherr.

UNC's third goal with 5:59 left in the game, meanwhile, came when it was two men up, a veritable gimme.

"We were shooting at the guy's stick -- we just didn't take bad shots," UNC midfielder Tim Gosier said. "And it's frustrating because it's not that they were any better than us.

"They were just putting their shots away and capitalizing. And that's the difference right there. We're just not capitalizing on our opportunities."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.