No. 3 UNC men's soccer ties Mercer, 0-0, on Tuesday night at Dorrance Field

The No. 3 North Carolina men’s soccer team (5-0-3, 2-0 ACC) drew against Mercer (3-2-4, 0-0 SoCon) in a scoreless 0-0 match at Dorrance Field on Tuesday evening.

UNC controlled the shot battle, tallying 17 to Mercer’s six. Redshirt junior goalkeeper Andrew Cordes recorded his fifth shutout of the season, extending the scoreless streak of Tar Heel opponents to 258 minutes.

“More than anything else, it’s trying to see if you can reset mentally," head coach Carlos Somoano said. "Especially after a game like tonight for us,”

The Bears had the game’s first scoring chance in the 10th minute, with a free kick from the right side by Mercer midfielder Carlos Santamaria landing right at the doorfront of the goal, but the header attempted by Mercer midfielder Nick Wanzer soared over the net.

UNC had an offensive response just two minutes later, with shots from graduate forward Martin Vician and graduate midfielder Jameson Charles both blocked by nearby defenders.

After a seventeen minute shot drought, graduate defender Riley Thomas had a pair of attempts on back-to-back corner kicks, with the first blocked and the second soaring high and wide left of the goal.

Vician had a golden scoring chance in the 31st minute, but he sent the ball flying over the right corner from the six yard mark with a booming strike of the foot.

With three minutes left in the first half, Santamaria sent a Mercer corner kick into the glove of Cordes, who dove backwards to send it wide. Seconds later, a header from Mercer midfielder Natnael McDonald off another corner trickled past the defense but wide of the left post. The Tar Heels and Bears headed into halftime scoreless.

“We just looked really heavy and had some bad mojo tonight," Somoano said. "And I think some of that was self-inflicted for sure.”

Six minutes into the second half, Mercer midfielder Dalton Reyna sent a hard strike from outside the box towards the bottom left corner, but a diving effort from Cordes kept the scoresheet clean.

In the 54th minute, senior midfielder Matthew Acosta sent a rebounded shot attempt on net, easily handled by Mercer goalkeeper Trever McMullen.

A minute later, a centering ball hit the foot of a crashing senior forward Luke Hille, who popped the ball over the net.

In the 60th minute, Cordes took a body shot from Mercer forward Kadeem Agard after making a leaping grab of a cross. After initially looking shaken up, Cordes picked himself up and resumed playing.

After another offensive lull, graduate forward Ahmad Al-Qaq put a hard ground ball on net from the left wing in the 71st minute, which was easily scooped by McMullen.

Three minutes later, Hille danced his way down the left side and put a shot on net that McMullen easily shut down. 

North Carolina had its best scoring chance in the 76th minute, when junior forward Lucas Ross broke through, sliding past a diving McMullen, but shot it off the left side of the net.

As if the missed strike wasn’t bad enough for UNC, incoming thunderstorms led to the game being suspended just seconds later. The game resumed after a brief delay. 

UNC brought pressure after the delay, but the Tar Heels came up empty after a pair of corner kicks in the 79th and 80th minute. Vician ripped a hard shot towards the left post in the 83rd minute, but McMullen stood his ground.

“We didn’t come back much better than when we started,” Somoano said.

Mercer held possession in the game’s dying minutes but could not crack the Tar Heel defense.

The Tar Heels return to Dorrance Field on Saturday at 7 p.m. when they host California in the first conference bout between the two teams.

@dylanstalterr

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