The No. 14 North Carolina men’s lacrosse team (6-3, 1-1 ACC) defeated High Point (6-4) by a final score of 16-9 Wednesday night at Dorrance Field.
What happened?
The Panthers got on the board first as they capitalized off the face-off win and put the ball by junior goalkeeper Collin Krieg. Just 11 seconds later, the Tar Heels tied it up as senior face-off midfielder Andrew Tyeryar sprinted down the field and rocketed the ball into the mesh.
High Point regained the lead off a goal from attackman Brayden Mayea. After a hectic first four minutes of play, UNC settled down and tied the game at two as graduate attackman Logan McGovern beat the High Point goalie to create the second tie of the game.
In what was a physical game early, the Tar Heels earned their first lead of the day as first-year attackman James Matan earned his seventh goal of the season. The Tar Heels ended the quarter with significant momentum and led 6-3.
The Panthers struck first in the second quarter and brought the Tar Heel lead down to two. A nice spin move from graduate student midfielder Harrison Schertzinger awarded the Tar Heels another three-goal lead just two minutes later. Capitalizing off its momentum, UNC scored two goals in 16 seconds, including a nifty behind-the-back move from McGovern to force a High Point timeout.
The Tar Heels scored their fourth unanswered goal of the period courtesy of graduate attackman Sean Goldsmith. After a nine-minute scoring drought, the Panthers finally found the back of the net again to make the score 10-5 in favor of UNC. Using the extra man advantage to his benefit, Goldsmith extended the North Carolina lead to six and earned his second goal of the game. After a choppy first half, the Tar Heels went into halftime with a 12-5 lead.
The Panthers came out swinging in the second half, scoring two goals in under a minute to close their deficit to five. After a nearly 10-minute scoring drought by the Tar Heels, they found the back of the net for the first time in the second half courtesy of senior attackman Lance Tillman. The rest of the quarter remained uneventful and ended with UNC leading 13-8
The fourth quarter started off stagnant for both teams. However, the Tar Heels broke the spell after a full-field goal by sophomore defenseman Paul Barton that was assisted by Krieg. UNC continued with the trick plays as sophomore midfielder Ty English faked a pass and bulleted the ball past the goalie without a single ounce of movement from the keeper. The Panthers only converted once in the fourth quarter and the Tar Heels cruised to their sixth win of the season.
