The No. 11 ranked Tar Heels (9-2-4, 4-2-1 ACC) defeated the No. 7 Stanford Cardinal (8-3-4, 3-1-3 ACC), 2-1, at Maloney Field on Sunday evening.
Without graduate forward Martin Vician and graduate forward Ahmad Al-Qaq, the Tar Heels had several offensive leaders step up to help secure a win.
North Carolina appeared defensively sound as first-year defender Tate Johnson made tackles to keep Stanford out of the UNC goal.
The aggressive soccer that was played on both sides of the ball created few offensive opportunities in the first half.
As UNC began to chip away at the Cardinal defense, the Tar Heels received better looks at the goal.
In the 38th minute, a high pressure turn over by first-year forward Bertil Hansen gave him a one-on-one showdown with Stanford’s goalkeeper. Hansen slipped the ball past the Cardinal player to put the ball in the back of the net to put the Tar Heels up, 1-0.
As the second half began, Stanford worked to find the equalizer.
Pinned on defense, the Tar Heels continued to stay solid in the back, even preventing Stanford from scoring off an opportunity inside the box as junior defender Charlie Harper made a sliding save to keep the shut-out alive.
Johnson took a big collision to draw North Carolina’s first offensive opportunity of the second half. A few minutes later, senior forward Luke Hille scored off a cross rebounded off the crossbar from senior midfielder Andrew Czech to make the game 2-0.
