Men’s soccer sears Syracuse

The trio was quick, skilled and unrelenting, and it won the game for the North Carolina men’s soccer team.

Thirty-six minutes had passed in No. 21 UNC’s 1-0 win against Syracuse (8-5-1, 2-5-1 ACC) on Friday night at Fetzer Field, and it was scoreless.

Then the trio — UNC attackers Tyler Engel and Cooper Vandermaas-Peeler and midfielder Verneri Valimaa — went to work.

“We played as a family,” Vandermaas-Peeler said.

They pressed the Syracuse defensive back, who passed it back to the Orange’s keeper, who then whiffed. The ball rolled to the left of the 18-yard box, deep in Syracuse’s defensive third, and Engel made a move and passed the ball to Valimaa, who was streaking into the box.

Valimaa — closed down by a couple of defenders — slid the ball to Vandermaas-Peeler, who slotted it past the keeper into the lower-right corner.

Goal UNC (5-2-5, 2-1-5 ACC), and it was the only one it would need.

The win was the Tar Heels’ second in a row — their first such streak since the season’s opening two games — and it propelled them to fifth place in the ACC.

One of the main reasons for that was Vandermaas-Peeler.

Coach Carlos Somoano started him in midfield, then realized his team wasn’t getting enough pressure on the Orange’s back line. So he moved him up top.

“As soon as we moved him up there he made a big impact by just stepping up and closing down the ball to force a mistake,” Somoano said.

“He’s got great range, covers a lot of ground, (and) he’s a slippery player, so I’m glad that he got rewarded with a goal tonight.”

UNC keeper Brendan Moore said Vandermaas-Peeler’s defense is what sets him apart from other strikers.

“He gets back and makes crucial tackles,” Moore said. “It’s good to have a guy in the top three that can score and also defend.”

It wasn’t a dominating win — both teams had a few good chances and possessed the ball relatively equally — but the Tar Heels capitalized on one of theirs, a promising sign in a season in which they’ve tied five times.

“I thought the result was fair tonight,” Somoano said.

Moore said North Carolina has learned from the string of ties it had at the start of the conference season.

“We’re doing well keeping our composure and defending a lead,” Moore said, contrasting the win with games earlier in the season when the Tar Heels would lose a lead after a 15-minute attacking spell by the opponent.

“It feels really good not to do that tonight,” he said.

sports@dailytarheel.com