No. 4 UNC men's lacrosse eases past No. 14 Penn, 16-8, at Dorrance Field

The No. 4 North Carolina men’s lacrosse team (4-0) defeated No. 14 Pennsylvania (2-2), 16-8, Friday evening at Dorrance Field.

The Tar Heels started off the evening by winning the faceoff, but the energized UNC squad ran into an almost immediate offside. 

Penn rocketed in the first goal of the game at the 10:58 mark. It was a momentary scare, that is, until the Tar Heels started an avalanche.

UNC would respond a minute and a half later, with junior attackman James Matan assisting it over the net to a ready senior midfielder Ty English for his sixth goal of the season. 30 seconds later, Matan assisted from the right side of the net to first-year midfielder Mason Szewczyk for his first career goal. 

“It was kinda surreal, this has always been a dream for me to play college lacrosse,” Szewczyk said. “Seeing that first one go in from James was great.”

Despite getting pushed in the crease, English scored his second goal, marking his third multi-goal game of the season at the 7:07 mark.

Swooping in and stealing it away from a stationary Penn defenseman, graduate midfielder Spencer Wirtheim assisted an open redshirt sophomore attackman Dominic Pietramala for his tenth goal of the season. 

For his third assist of the game, it was Matan to senior defenseman Paul Barton for his first of the season just 12 seconds after the last goal. One UNC goal later and the first quarter concluded with UNC ahead, 6-1.

After all those assists, it was Matan who found the back of the net. Scooping it up after a Quaker save, Matan spun around and shot to make it 7-1 North Carolina. Penn responded after seven straight UNC goals, trading scores until the end of the half — which ended 10-3 in favor of North Carolina. 

“I wanted to get the ball out of my stick as soon as possible and in the goal,” Matan said. “I saw a guy sliding towards me, I just wanted to spin off and put the ball in the back of the net.”

The Tar Heels dominated in the first 30 minutes, outshooting the Quakers 22-7, going 11 for 15 on faceoffs and winning the ground ball battle, 24-7. 

Sophomore midfielder Andrew Preis got the scoring started for the Tar Heels in the second half. Bouncing it off the turf and over the Penn goalie, Pietramala had his second goal of the game five minutes into the third quarter.

After a nearly nine minute goal drought and with the Tar Heels a man up, senior midfielder Ryan Levy would make it 14-4 UNC with 48 seconds left in the third. The score was 14-4, advantage North Carolina. 

Pietramala scored his third of the game just over a minute into the fourth, putting UNC up 11. 

“We got a lot of freshmen contributing,” head coach Joe Breschi said. “All those freshmen [are contributing] because of the confidence that the upperclassmen are showing in them.”

With the game all but decided, first-year attackman Luke Macaluso rifled in a shot from the left side for his first career goal. The Quakers though continued to eat into the Tar Heel lead, taking advantage of several UNC penalties. Two straight for Penn and the score was 16-8 with 2:49 remaining.

Two-straight saves for backup junior goalie Kent Goode later and the Tar Heels had wrapped it up, winning 16-8.

“Coaches can do the Xs and Os stuff, but between the ears it comes down to the teammates in the locker room,” Breschi said. “We always talk about a player led team and this team is player led, and they’re doing a terrific job.”

The Tar Heels take the field again Sunday against Princeton at 11 a.m. at Dorrance Field.

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