UNC men's soccer player Ben Speas leaves the Zips for a bluer pitch

The North Carolina men’s soccer team has come close a couple of times, including two College Cup appearances in the last two seasons, but the men haven’t brought a national title to Chapel Hill since 2001.

That doesn’t mean the Tar Heels’ roster is devoid of National Championship talent — or experience, for that matter.

Forward Ben Speas was a member of the 2010 Akron Zips team that won the College Cup in Santa Barbara, Calif.

This season, he’s in Carolina Blue.

“(Transferring) still doesn’t make sense to a lot of people,” Speas said. “But I know that UNC can do the same exact thing, so I didn’t feel like I was stepping down at all in level. I just felt like it was a new challenge. I want to win it with UNC even more now.”

Speas decided to make the move from his home state of Ohio to play for North Carolina in May of this year, just weeks after Carlos Somoano was named the new head coach of the Tar Heels. Somoano readily welcomed the experience Speas had to offer.

“What is individually beneficial to Ben is that he’s been in big games,” Somoano said. “Many players that come into UNC and ACC programs like ours, there is an adjustment period of having to play an ACC schedule and the schedule we have in general. But with Ben, he’s been in this kind of environment already.”

Speas still wears the same number he wore at Akron, No. 17, but his role hasn’t been as steady. While at Akron, he roamed the midfield, but for UNC he’s running up front in the forward slot.

“The position I’m playing in the formation we play really complements my play, which is great and was one of the reasons I wanted to make the move,” Speas said. “I get freedom to do what I do best, which is run at players.”

From the other side

Ultimately, Speas was only part of a mass exodus from Akron. From last year’s team, eight players left to play professionally and seven players transferred to other programs.

But before making his decision to transfer, Speas was no stranger to the Tar Heels, or to Chapel Hill.

During his freshman year, the Zips ended the Tar Heels’ season in penalty kicks in the national semifinals in Cary — a game that Speas started for Akron.

For Speas, like many who watch the Tar Heels in action, several players stood out right away — including midfielder Enzo Martinez, who was only a freshman reserve in 2009.

“That was probably the first game I got to play the full 90 minutes at Akron,” Speas said. “It was definitely a good game — it was fun. I knew Billy (Schuler), but I remember playing against Kirk (Urso) and (Michael) Farfan and Enzo.”

Virginia knocked off Akron in the title match that year, but the Zips were back in North Carolina eight months later to kick off the next season against the Tar Heels at Fetzer Field.

Akron won the match convincingly, 3-0, but the local atmosphere of Chapel Hill had started to win over Speas. Though he wasn’t considering leaving Akron at the time, he admitted there was something special about Chapel Hill.

“I never had been here, and when we came here, it was crazy,” Speas said. “It was so nice. We went on Franklin one day, and it wasn’t like Akron at all. It’s like the exact opposite of Akron.”
Now living in Chapel Hill, Speas is glad he made the move.

“It’s the nicest place I’ve ever been in my life. It’s like I’m on vacation or something,” Speas said.

“And in a month and a half, there’s not going to be two feet of snow on the ground. I cannot wait for that.”

Old friends

Not only had Speas played in Chapel Hill against UNC, but he was quite familiar with one Tar Heel in particular.
That’s because Speas and Schuler were roommates in residency in the US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program while teenagers.
Schuler was one of the first to know when Speas decided to come to UNC.

“I talked to him about a week before he made the decision,” Schuler said. “He came up and visited, and I hung out with him … I knew very briefly beforehand that he was coming to UNC.”

Speas recalled a fluidity between he and Schuler on the field, something Speas relished.

UNC

That connection must still be prevalent because Speas and Schuler have been dominating front runners for the Tar Heel offense this season. Their union was exemplified most recently in UNC’s 2-0 win against Clemson last Friday.

Speas netted his first goal in a UNC uniform on the first shot of the game for UNC. Near the touch line, Speas hesitated with the ball to read the keeper. When the keeper made the step to slide, Speas chipped one right in.

Just 12 minutes later, Speas and Schuler hooked up to give North Carolina the final two-goal advantage.

“That goal was exactly what I thought of when I came here,” Speas said. “Billy gets the ball. He plays to me. I’m dribbling at guys. They’re both coming at me. I know Billy’s going to be there, so I just flipped it across. It was a good goal.”

“I told him I liked that goal better than I liked my own goal.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.