Slow second half dooms Tar Heel lacrosse against Notre Dame, 11-10

Jimmy Bitter slithered in front of the cage and somehow, some way guided the ball into the net.

But the junior attackman’s celebration lacked the spunk which followed his two goals earlier in the game.

It was because Bitter had watched the North Carolina men’s lacrosse team slowly lose the fire it took to Fetzer Field in the first half Saturday, as Notre Dame turned up the heat in the second half.

Bitter’s diving score gave the Tar Heels hope — down just one goal with 3:51 left, despite leading by five at the start of the third quarter.

That optimism, however, quickly deteriorated to the tune of three plays the team will likely see replayed on film a lot this week — three straight turnovers in the waning minutes of the game that ushered No. 2 UNC (3-1, 0-1 ACC) to drop its first game of the season in an 11-10 ACC-opening loss to the Fighting Irish (2-1, ACC 1-0).

“I just think we didn’t execute towards the end of the game,” Bitter said.

He corrected himself.

“In the second half of the game.”

As the nation’s top-ranked offense and defense, UNC came out as expected Saturday during an unrelenting first half that Bitter boiled down to the anticipation of the matchup, as UNC fell to Notre Dame 10-9 in triple overtime last season.

UNC was seemingly in search of steadfast redemption to start the afternoon, forcing Notre Dame to switch goalies in just the first quarter en route to claiming a 7-3 advantage heading into halftime.

But UNC couldn’t keep it up.

After a goal from junior attackman Joey Sankey at the start of the second half, Notre Dame scored five unanswered goals, eating the clock with long possessions and forcing UNC to foul out of frustration. Notre Dame scored four goals on the afternoon on man-up opportunities — three of which came in the second half.

“They were getting their opportunities because they had a ton of possessions,” coach Joe Breschi said. “We put a lot of pressure on our defense … to make plays.”

On three of those plays down the stretch, that pressure was too much for UNC’s defense, leading to three straight turnovers while leaving UNC’s attack helpless without the ball.

“I think we were 15-for-20 clearing the ball, which really isn’t acceptable, especially at North Carolina, especially being our first ACC game,” senior defensive midfielder Ryan Creighton said.

If there was any ounce of hope left from Bitter’s rallying goal after those three miscues, it came with 23 seconds left in the game when UNC got the ball to run one more play. But just before the final horn sounded, Notre Dame goalkeeper Shane Doss snatched senior midfielder Pat Foster’s desperation shot out of the air.

Bitter knew it shouldn’t have come down to that.

“We lost kind of our edge a little bit,” Bitter said. “They came out hungrier in the second half.”

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