Sidelined by a torn groin muscle, the now redshirt senior had to look on in disbelief as the North Carolina men’s soccer team gave up two goals in the final 15 minutes of its match against Clemson, losing 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament.
But when Lovejoy got another chance on a bigger stage, the Greensboro, N.C. native left it all on the field, tallying his first multi-goal game of the season in a 2-1 win against those very same Tigers in the third round of the NCAA Men’s College Cup.
The forward’s impact showed early on in Sunday’s match against Clemson, when, in the 13th minute, a corner kick gave UNC its first scoring opportunity of the game. As sophomore Omar Holness readied himself in the right corner, Lovejoy looked for a place to make his run.
As the ball flew toward the box, Lovejoy started his march toward near-post. And moments later, the redshirt senior rose above a sea of Tiger defenders to meet the ball, and headed it into the back of the net to give the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead.
“I could just judge the height of the ball right when it came off his foot,” said Lovejoy in a postgame press conference. “And I figured out where I needed to be, and it ended up getting up above the near-post zone.”
But Clemson fired back a little over 10 minutes later after UNC defender Boyd Okwuonu fouled a Tiger forward in the box after giving up the ball.
A penalty kick was awarded to Clemson, and junior defender Kyle Fisher promptly stepped up and hammered a shot past goalkeeper Brendan Moore to knot the game at one.
But the senior keeper proved to be a proverbial brick wall for the remainder of the first half, stifling the Clemson attack at every turn, including a left-footed shot from Diego Campos in the 40th minute, which Moore brushed away from goal.
