Men's soccer team defeated NC State 1-0 Friday

RALEIGH — Time stood still.

After giving up a throw-in to N.C. State in the first half of its 1-0 win on Friday, the No. 15 North Carolina men’s soccer team experienced a sequence of events that looked like something out of a bad action movie.

First, there was over-aggressiveness.

After the throw, Tar Heel defender Nick Williams took a bad angle when trying to cover Reed Norton, allowing the Wolfpack junior to streak down the right sideline. When an out-of-position Williams caught up, he was fooled again, as a skillful chop to the inside gave Norton room in the UNC box to create a potential scoring chance in the 22nd minute.

Then, there was a tendency to make things more dangerous than they should have been.

With Norton free on the right side of the box, the burden fell on the other members of the UNC defense to stop the attacking chance.

But as Norton fired in a low cross into the center of the box, senior Boyd Okwuonu, normally a defensive stalwart, lost track of his assignment and let N.C. State’s Yanni Hachem get into a position where he could get off a shot.

And finally, there was slow motion.

When Hachem’s right foot connected with the ball, every member of the UNC defense, as well as goalkeeper Brendan Moore, seemed to slowly drift to the right, away from what looked like a sure goal for the Wolfpack — every member, that is, except senior Verneri Valimaa.

“It was one of those moments where everything just stops,” Valimaa said. “I kept tracking back, and I saw (Hachem) get a shot on target. I just tried to get whatever contact I could on the ball to get it out.”

As the shot moved towards the bottom left corner of the net, Valimaa proved the hero, clearing the ball from the line to keep the game scoreless for the time being.

And while the clearance turned out to be a decisive moment in the Tar Heels’ victory, it was a microcosm of the performance by the UNC defense. They were over-aggressive, and they almost gave the game away because of it.

Among the lone bright spots for the Tar Heels was Jamaica native Omar Holness, who, like Valimaa, slid from the midfield into a more defensive role as the back three struggled.

“We all take pride in being able to play that role, but we definitely need to get better at it,” Holness said. “Today wasn’t as good of a performance as we were hoping, but we’ll come out next week and do better.”

Holness’ impact was felt both on the defensive side as well as the offensive, where he tallied five shots as well as the lone goal of the match in the 75th minute.

Coach Carlos Somoano said after the game that although his own team wasn’t sharp, he thought N.C. State was the reason the defense seemed out of sync.

“It didn’t look like we had much but guts tonight, and fortunately that was enough to get the result,” he said.

Like actors in a bad action movie, UNC put on a gutsy performance that almost spelled its downfall. But as the Tar Heels demonstrated on Friday, even bad action movies can be successful in the end.

sports@dailytarheel.com