Zach Wright leads UNC men’s soccer to victory

Sophomore Zach Wright made all the right moves in Tuesday’s match against UNC-Wilmington.

Behind two first-half goals by the forward, the No. 2 North Carolina men’s soccer team seized a substantial lead in a 3-0 win over the Seahawks.

Shortly into the first half, UNC (9-0-1) kept a strong hold on the ball, making UNC-W (6-2-2) focus heavily on its defensive players.

The first goal scored by Wright was off of a header from redshirt junior Tucker Hume.

By the end of the first half, UNC had notched 10 shots, with Wright scoring the only two goals.

“I think the one thing he’s drastically improved this semester is getting in behind and making runs in behind,” senior defender Jonathan Campbell said.

“The future, I mean, he’s a sophomore playing right now and he’s got a leadership chance, where right now he’s leading by example, and in the future he’s going to have to be a vocal leader for the team.”

Campbell assisted on Wright’s first goal after clearing a shot by UNC-W shortly into the first half.

Campbell shared how the team switched it from center back to the right side, where Hume was able to head it over to Wright in order to score the first goal of the game.

About 10 minutes after Wright scored the first goal of the game, he put away a second on a pass up the middle of the field from sophomore David October.

“The second goal, it just felt good to put them away because they beat us the last two years, so we really had to get into them,” Wright said.

Wright’s second goal on Tuesday marked his fourth of the season, which leaves him tied for second on the team with sophomore forward Alan Winn.

According to Coach Carlos Somoano, the chemistry and unity of the forwards has been a work in progress.

But it seems to be paying off as the season continues.

“It’s been something that we’ve really, really focused on. Last year we had Tyler Engel, a fifth-year senior, and we had Andy Craven, a fifth-year senior. So we had a lot of experienced players playing in our front line,” he said.

“They were a little bit easier to coach instruction-wise and they were a little bit further ahead in what the expectations of this program are.These are younger players, or less experienced players, on Fetzer Field, and we had to take a step back and start from a different starting point and really work on some of those things.”

Wright’s performance on Tuesday and the growth of the younger players around him hints at what the team could become in the future.

“You can only imagine what they will look like two years from now if we keep working,” Somoano said.

“You can only imagine Zach and Alan up there running around in two years time; I mean, it’ll be phenomenal.”

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