Men's soccer continues struggles against CAA opposition

The last time the North Carolina men’s soccer team faced off against a Colonial Athletic Association program, it marked the first loss of the season for the then previously unbeaten Tar Heels.

William & Mary, which came to Fetzer Field Sept. 24 as underdogs despite knocking off formerly top-ranked Creighton two weeks earlier, left Chapel Hill with a 1-0 victory in hand, having beaten another No. 1 team in the Tar Heels.

Tuesday night, UNC had a chance to redeem its early-season loss when it took on another CAA power, UNC-Wilmington. The second time around, though, the Tar Heels fared little better than they did in their first clash with the CAA.

North Carolina (5-3-5) fell 1-0 in their second non-conference loss of the season.

Redshirt senior forward Josh Rice said that losses, even those not to ACC teams, are always detrimental.

“It’s just like any loss, we just have to move forward from it,” Rice said. “It’s not any different whether it’s ACC or any game, every day is a game and any team can win.”

UNC, which entered the game on a two-game win streak against conference foes Boston College and Syracuse, were aggressive early Tuesday, creating three scoring chances in the game’s opening minutes. This differed from the September match against William & Mary when the Tar Heels did not fire their first shot until the 24th minute.

Coach Carlos Somoano noted his team’s strong start, but also acknowledged his squad’s inability to place the ball in the back of the net.

“In the first 15 minutes, I think we had three really good looks at goal that… I don’t have any easy way to say that as a coach, somebody’s got to put the ball in the goal,” Somoano said.

Junior midfielder Verneri Valimaa echoed his coach, but made note of the fact that a loss can never be considered a good thing.

“I think we started the game pretty well, pressing, and we had a few open looks at goal in the beginning of the first half, but there’s not (many) positives to look at,” Valimaa said.

North Carolina outshot UNC-Wilmington 16-4 on the night — a larger margin compared to a slim 10-8 advantage against the Tribe.

“Every soccer coach will tell you this, if you have chances, you need to put at least one of them away,” Somoano said. “For the amount of chances that we had tonight, then if you don’t get one of them away, then you have to swallow the really bad-tasting medicine that we have to swallow tonight.”

UNC went into Tuesday night with only 14 goals on the year, four of which came in a 4-0 victory over Coastal Carolina earlier this season. In its remaining 12 games, North Carolina has scored only 10 goals — an offensive struggle that continued against the Seahawks — while surrendering two game-winners to two CAA teams.

Both of those goals came off of deflections after a set piece. Against William & Mary, the Tar Heels conceded a late header. Tuesday, UNC-Wilmington found the back of the net after a Seahawk free kick got lost in a crowd of UNC defenders and the ball deflected off of Jordan Cordero’s shin, into the bottom right corner of the goal .

For UNC, which returns to ACC play against Pittsburgh Saturday, Valimaa stressed the importance of forgetting the team’s inefficiency against its two CAA opponents.

“It’s a non-conference game, but we look at every game the same,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s preseason against someone or a non-conference game during the season or an ACC game, we just want to win every game that we play.”

sports@dailytarheel.com