Ranked the No. 5 team in the nation, the North Carolina men’s soccer team opened its season with a 4-1 win against the Winthrop Eagles on Friday. Three freshmen scored for a UNC team looking to replace a lot of scoring from the 2014 season.
UNC’s first goal came on an innocent cross into the box that was mishandled by the Winthrop goalkeeper. The ball bounced off the face of an Eagles defender and ricocheted into the goal for a 1-0 UNC lead 30 minutes into the first half.
The Tar Heels threatened at other times in the first half, particularly with sophomore forward Alan Winn. Winn was noticeably faster than everyone else on the field, but couldn’t help UNC break through and score.
In the second half, Winthrop evened the score at 1 when three Eagles got behind the Tar Heel back line, which struggled at times throughout the evening. After three passes, each of which could have been shot instead, Winthrop senior forward Patrick Barnes shot across the grain from the left corner, beating redshirt freshman goalkeeper James Pyle.
Then UNC’s freshmen took over. Shortly after taking a hard foul and going to the ground, redshirt freshman midfielder Andy Lopez received a lob pass inside the box and flicked it past the goalkeeper for a 2-1 UNC lead.
Lopez later had another shot deflected out of bounds by the Winthrop goalkeeper, then had his ensuing corner put in by freshman midfielder Alex Moztarzadeh for UNC’s third goal.
To round out the scoring, freshman midfielder Dominic Jensen blasted a shot from the top of the box with only a few minutes left. The shot fit perfectly into the top right corner of the goal, leaving no chance for the Winthrop goalkeeper to stop it and giving Jensen potentially the best goal of the year in the first exhibition game.
Quotable
“Dom’s crazy. He don’t care, he’s just going to let them fly. If you’ve watched Dom play much in the last couple years, that’s right in his wheelhouse. That’s not anything out of the ordinary.” – UNC Coach Carlos Somoano on Jensen’s goal.
