The No. 10 North Carolina men’s lacrosse team (4-1, 0-0 ACC) used a second half surge to defeat No.13 Johns Hopkins (3-2, 0-0 Big Ten) 15-10 at Dorrance Field.
What happened?
Since 2016, the home team has won the last six times in this series. The Tar Heels came into the game fresh off a 14-11 win over Brown on Wednesday afternoon.
As for the Blue Jays, they came into Dorrance Field coming off their 1,000 win in program history defeating Loyola Maryland 11-10 last Saturday — becoming the first program to reach this milestone.
In a game that saw rainy skies, the Tar Heels and Blue Jays did not disappoint. Although the temperature in Chapel Hill was 44 degrees at faceoff with players slipping, there was a summer lacrosse feel — shooting the ball at all costs and a game of runs.
On the first offensive possession, junior attackman Lance Tillman came in from the box, running north to south down the right alley and scored 31 seconds into the game. After a huge defensive stop on Johns Hopkins' first offensive series, Tillman found graduate attackman Chris Gray to go up 2-0.
After a balanced rest of the first quarter, each team put in goals with UNC going up 4-2. As the second quarter got underway, Gray found senior attackman Jacob Kelly to extend the Tar Heels' lead 5-2.
Less than two and a half minutes later, Johns Hopkins put in three straight goals to tie the game at five goals apiece. Fifty seconds later, North Carolina got two quick goals from Gray and senior attackman Nicky Solomon to go up 7-5. By halftime, UNC led 9-6, as 49 shots were fired between the two teams.
In the third quarter, UNC outscored Johns Hopkins 3-0 in the third quarter to go up 12-6. Early in the fourth quarter, the Tar Heels used their momentum to surge even further ahead, 14-6.
