March 29, 2008

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - Ninth-ranked North Carolina got two goals from Ben Hunt in the first three minutes of the game, pushed its lead to 5-1 at the half and was never seriously challenged as the Tar Heels eased past the eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team, 13-8, before a crowd of 4,250 at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon. The win is the second straight for the Tar Heels against Johns Hopkins and their first at Homewood Field since 1994. UNC improves to 7-2 with the win, while the Blue Jays drop their fourth straight and fall to 3-4.

Hunt needed just 35 seconds to open the scoring and pushed the lead to 2-0 with his second unassisted goal just over two minutes later. The Heels added back-to-back goals in a 46-second span late in the first quarter by Cryder DiPietro and Nick Tintle to push the lead to 4-0 and junior goalie Grant Zimmerman was spectacular in the opening 15 minutes as he registered six of his 14 saves in the first quarter. The Blue Jays outshot the Tar Heels 11-7 in the first quarter, yet trailed 4-0 when the period ended.

The teams traded second quarter goals before the Blue Jays goal two of the first three goals of the third quarter - both by senior Michael Doneger - to slice the deficit to 6-3 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the period. The Tar Heels took over from there and put the game away with a 5-0 run over the final nine minutes of the period to push out to an 11-3 lead at the end of the three quarters. Sean Delaney scored twice and added and assist during the 5-0 spree for North Carolina, which also got Hunt's third goal of the game and a Bart Wagner tally in the period.

The Blue Jays outscored the Tar Heels 5-2 in the final period to account for the 13-8 final score. Stephen Peyser and Dave Spaulding scored in a seven-second span in the first minute of the quarter to pull JHU within 11-5, but DiPietro found Michael B. Burns wide open in front of the net 30 seconds after Spaulding's goal and the Blue Jays solved Zimmerman just once - a Paul Rabil goal off an assist from Kyle Wharton with 8:49 remaining - over the next 10 minutes. Burns added his second goal of the game with 3:25 remaining and Kevin Huntley closed out the scoring with a pair of goals in the final 1:36.

Zimmerman led the way for North Carolina with his 14-save performance, which included 13 saves over the first three quarters as the Tar Heels stretched out to the 11-3 lead after 45 minutes. Hunt scored a game-high three goals and added one assist, while Delaney chipped in with two goals and two assists as the Tar Heels got goals from nine different players and 12 players registered at least one point in the victory.

Huntley, Doneger and Rabil all scored two goals for the Blue Jays, who also got one goal and one assist from Peyser. Peyser also won 11-of-13 faceoffs and grabbed a game-high nine ground balls.

#9 North Carolina (7-2) 4-1-6-2/13
#8 Johns Hopkins (3-4) 0-1-2-5/8

Goals: N: Hunt-3, Burns-2, Delaney-2, DiPietro, McAuley, Tintle, Petracca, Wagner, Kaiser. J: Huntley-2, Rabil-2, Doneger-2. Assists: N: Delaney-2, Bitter, Burke, DiPietro, Gregory, Hunt, McAuley. J: Boyle-2, Goodrich, Peyser, Wharton. Saves: N: Zimmerman-14. J: Gvozden-7, Sheain-1 Shots: N-30. J-40. EMO: N: 1-for-3. J: 1-for-2. Attendance: 4,250.

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