UNC men's soccer easily handles Campbell

The North Carolina men’s soccer team amped up its defensive pressure Tuesday night to dominate Campbell 3-0.

UNC’s solid defense allowed the Tar Heel offense to let loose an offensive firestorm.

The Tar Heels attacked Campbell early in the first half, putting up two goals before the break.

Junior forward Andy Craven took advantage of the openings created by UNC’s dominating defensive performance to score in the 19th minute, assisted by freshman midfielder Danny Garcia.

“I think it all started off with our defensive pressure up top with Danny (Garcia) and Raby (George) and me,” Craven said. “We were able to make the other team uncomfortable.

“Then Danny (Garcia) won it right in the middle of the field, and it was a breakaway and I just made a run to get open, and he played it to me and I scored.”

North Carolina saw another burst of aggression when seniors Cameron Brown and Martin Murphy came into the game late in the first half.

“We’re trying to keep a high pressure,” Murphy said. “The guys were working really hard and the coaches had to put some fresh legs in there, so he put me and Cam (Brown) in to try to keep the high pressure going and it worked.”

Murphy sent in a header during the 37th minute on a cross from Jordan Gafa after he received the ball from Brown.

“We wanted to make an impact as soon as we got in,” Brown said. “We didn’t want to take too long because we only had 13 minutes in the first half.”

Brown later scored on a penalty kick in the 75th minute. Brown said he and Murphy used their momentum off the bench and desire to impress coach Carlos Somoano to elevate their level of play.

“(Somoano) put his faith in us to put us out there and we just responded with a little senior connection on the second goal,” Brown said.

The Tar Heels kept possession of the ball for the majority of the game as they put up 22 shots. The Camels took just three shots, all three of which came in the first 40 minutes.

Campbell defeated N.C. State, who UNC plays Friday night, 2-0 earlier this season. But Garcia said that the Camels’ game with the Wolfpack has little impact on UNC’s match.

“We’ve got a lot of momentum, but you’ve got to think that we’re playing N.C. State at N.C. State,” Garcia said. “It’s at their home. They’re going to come with everything — their fans, they have that home advantage.”

“So we have to be careful that we don’t underestimate them, too. But we’ve got motivation.”

Somoano echoed Garcia and said he was focusing on the present game.

“Each game, we just go one at a time, and now that this game is behind us, we’re ready to move on and focus in on State.”

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