UNC men's soccer trumps Georgia Southern for seventh straight win

Nine and six.

That’s how many corner kicks and assisted goals, respectively, the No. 6 North Carolina men’s soccer team (12-4) had in its 6-2 victory against Georgia Southern (6-7) Tuesday night.

“Well, to be honest, the players in the box, they make the right runs, so it makes the cross look a bit better than it really is,” said junior midfielder Alex Olofson.

And it was obvious that — as successful set plays imply and as Olofson said — the Tar Heels were able to rely on each other and use their chemistry as a team to come out on top in their final non-conference game of the season.

The first two goals in UNC’s seventh consecutive win came in the fifth and sixth minutes by junior Walker Hume and senior Andy Craven, respectively, after free kicks.

But the assists didn’t stop there.

The third goal of the game came from Craven, who cleaned up a shot by freshman defender David October that careened off the crossbar.

When asked if that was a designed play they often work on, Craven jokingly responded “sometimes” because, after a team effort like this one, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if it truly were.

But Craven, who ended the game with a career-first hat trick, refused to take credit for his goals, naming all of those who assisted him after quickly brushing over his own accomplishment.

“Andy is the center forward, and he’s the target player for the offense,” said Coach Carlos Samoano.

“His job is to score, and he did his job.”

The second half only brought more goals and assists, including one more goal by Craven and four goals in the span of 83 seconds, although two of those goals were Georgia Southern’s.

The two final UNC goals were scored by senior midfielder Verneri Valimaa and senior defenseman C.J. Odenigwe on assists by freshman forward Zach Wright.

“We were efficient,” Samoano said. “And we really took our chances well.”

Georgia Southern was only able to muster two goals — neither of which came on assists — while all six UNC goals were assisted.

And even though Georgia Southern is not the most difficult team on UNC’s schedule, the performance was a sound testament to the success of the team thus far, going into the regular season finale against Virginia on Saturday.

“You realize, yeah, we can put the ball in the back of the net, and it’s a confidence booster,” Craven said.

“We just want to move into the next game confidently and attack as much as we can, and hopefully we can put some similar numbers up.”

sports@dailytarheel.com