Box Score

CHAPEL HILL, NC - The fourth-ranked North Carolina men's lacrosse team got a combined seven goals and four assists from senior attackmen Jimmy Bitter and Joey Sankey and the host Tar Heels did just enough to hold off a rally by ninth-ranked Johns Hopkins in a 13-11 victory at Navy Field Saturday afternoon. The Tar Heels improve to 4-0 with the victory, while the Blue Jays slip to 2-2.

In a game of runs, the Tar Heels scored single goals just twice, to open and close their scoring and the final goal, a strike by senior Chad Tutton, with 6:01 to play, proved to be decisive as it halted a three-goal Blue Jay run that had sliced what was a 12-7 deficit to 12-10 with plenty of time remaining. Hopkins would get a goal by freshman Shack Stanwick with 2:45 remaining to make it 13-11 and the Blue Jays twice had possession after Stanwick's goal, but a pair of turnovers and a late penalty sealed the loss.

UNC led 7-2 late in the second quarter and 7-3 at the start of the third, before the second-half game of runs began with a three-goal flurry by the Blue Jays. Ryan Brown's second of the game, an unassisted goal by Wilkins Dismuke on a dodge from behind the goal and an extra-man goal by John Crawley made it 7-6 midway through the period.

As quickly as the Blue Jays pulled within one, the Tar Heels had it back to four at 10-6 as they needed just 79 seconds to fire three home. Luke Goldstock got free in the high slot and ripped one home and then added his third of the game just 16 seconds later as he got free on the backside after a scramble on the ensuing faceoff. When Bitter completed the three-goal run a short time later, the `Heels had their four-goal lead and, seemingly, all the momentum.

An extra-man goal by Patrick Fraser late in the period made it 10-7 entering the fourth, but the deficit swelled to five after Sankey and Brent Armstrong scored back-to-back goals in a span of just 25 seconds before the quarter was five minutes old.

As quickly as the lead was five, it was back to two as Hopkins answered the Tar Heels' three-goal flurry with a three-goal run of their own; a run that took less then three minutes and left plenty of time for more.

Brown, Shack Stanwick and Wells Stanwick all scored during the spree for the Blue Jays, who used a six-of-seven fourth-quarter performance on faceoffs to fuel the spree. Wells Stanwick's goal came with just under eight minutes on the clock and he drew an unnecessary roughness foul on Zach Powers as he scored to give the Blue Jays possession with an extra-man following the goal.

However, the Tar Heels forced a turnover, cleared the ball and drew a foul on the Blue Jays to even things up and Tuton's goal came a short time later to give UNC the 13-10 lead. Shack Stanwick's goal with less than three minutes remaining made it 13-11, but the Blue Jays couldn't slice it to one before UNC ran out the final 90 seconds to seal the win.

The Tar Heels jumped out to the 7-3 lead at the half as they broke a 1-1 tie with a four-goal run that pushed them out to a 5-1 lead early in the second quarter. Bitter scored the final two goals in the four-goal run, which was halted by a Crawley extra-man goal with 9:22 to play in the second quarter.

Back-to-back goals by Sankey and Bitter pushed the lead out to a 7-2 with 4:33 left in the first half, but a Joel Tinney unassisted goal with 2:37 on the clock closed out the first-half scoring. Tinney's goal was the first in a four-goal run for the Blue Jays, who crept within one (7-6) with that run, but never drew even in a second half that featured a combined 14 goals and 46 shots.

Bitter (4g, 1a), Sankey (3g, 3a) and Goldstock (3g) led the way for North Carolina, which seemingly had an answer for every Blue Jay run the drew them close.

Brown extended his goal-scoring streak to 20- games with a three-goal, three-assist performance for the Blue Jays, who also got the two goals from Crawley and Shack Stanwick and one goal and one assist from Tinney. Senior Drew Kennedy won 12-of-19 faceoffs and had six ground balls and the Blue Jays held advantages in shots (42-38), ground balls (38-33) and faceoffs (15-12).

Johns Hopkins will return to action next Saturday when the Blue Jays welcome Princeton to Homewood Field. The Tigers knocked off Hofstra, 14-12, earlier today.

- 30 -