Late in the third quarter of North Carolina’s lacrosse game at Duke, Marcus Holman delivered a crushing check to a Blue Devil defender.
Duke’s Ben Belmont then hit Holman after the whistle, causing three Tar Heels to flock toward the action just outside of Duke’s defensive third. As more Blue Devils rushed to the scene, the two teams exchanged shoves and subtle jabs until the referees pried the rivals apart.
It was that type of fire that was needed to claim victory in Friday’s match. The Blue Devils played with it from the opening faceoff, but North Carolina didn’t bring it until heading into halftime already trailing 9-3.
“We came out in the first half and didn’t play very hard,” Holman said. “To be honest, we played soft.
The Blue Devils hit UNC in the mouth from the beginning. Duke’s Jake Tripucka and Christian Walsh attacked a Tar Heel defense that wasn’t playing aggressively, and each netted two first-quarter goals to start the game on a 4-0 run.
But UNC’s first-half woes didn’t rest just with the defense. It was a full-team effort — or lack thereof.
In the first half, Duke doubled the amount of ground balls the Tar Heels fielded, had a third of the turnovers and won the faceoff battle 10-14. The Blue Devils flew across the field, consistently catching UNC a step slow.
“That was on us the way we played in the first half,” freshman Joey Sankey said. “We didn’t play 100 percent, maybe it was, like, 90 or 95.”
When UNC made a run in the second half to pull within two, the Tar Heels’ play was noticeably more spirited. But following such an uninspired start, the hole was too big to climb out of.