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No. 2/3 North Carolina Holds Off No. 4/5 Princeton 12-11
March 17, 2010 | Men's Lacrosse
Princeton's men's lacrosse team hadn't trailed by more than one goal at any point in its first games, all of which were wins.
So when the Tigers found themselves down by five goals on three separate occasions Tuesday night against equally unbeaten North Carolina, ranked second in one poll and third in the other, it was an interesting test for a Princeton team that had not been in that situation to date.
How did Princeton respond? Give it an A-minus.
Princeton ripped off five straight goals to draw even with the Tar Heels, only to see UNC score twice 50 seconds apart late in the fourth and then hold off the Tigers 12-11 in front of 2,812 fans at Fetzer Field in a game that looked like it would be a blowout and ended up being a pretty good showcase for two of the country's top teams. Princeton leads the all-time series 7-5 as the teams played for the first time since 1999.
The loss dropped Princeton to 4-1 heading into its Ivy League opener against Penn Saturday at 1 at Class of 1952 Stadium. North Carolina, which hadn't played in six days since handling arch-rival Duke, is now 7-0.
Princeton has wins over two Top 10 teams (Hofstra and Johns Hopkins), but perhaps the most impressive thing that the Tigers have done in their first five games came in the only loss. Princeton trailed 7-2, 9-4 and 10-5 with four minutes left in the third as UNC looked sharp on offense and overwhelming on defense, and the Tigers - playing on Carolina's home field and playing for the fourth time in 11 days - looked like it was on the verge of a huge loss.
Instead, Princeton regrouped and played as good a 13-minute stretch as it has all season, shutting out the Tar Heels during a 5-0 run that squared the game at 10-10.
It started when Jack McBride scored back-to-back goals to make it 10-7 at the end of the third, and Rob Engelke made it a 10-8 game after Princeton got a big stop on Carolina's first fourth-quarter possession. Freshman Mike Chanenchuk scored with 8:34 left to make it 10-9 and then tied it with 4:46 left with his third of the night and 11th of his rookie season.
Carolina, though, didn't go away. Ryan Flanagan, UNC's 6-6, 240-pound defenseman who battled McBride all night, caused a turnover after a face-off win for the Tigers, and Billy Bitter, perhaps the best player in the country, scored with exactly three minutes to play to make it 11-10. Bitter was played head-up all night by Long Ellis, who did a tremendous job holding the explosive Bitter down.
Cryder DiPietro scored with 2:10 to go to make it 12-10, and Engelke scored his third of the night with just two seconds left to make the final a one-goal game.
Princeton and Carolina split the first four goals, as John Cunningham scored off a long pass from Jeremy Hirsch for a longstick-to-longstick goal and Chris McBride scored the first of his two for Princeton and Gavin Petracca scored the first two of his four for the Heels.
By the time Princeton would score again, nearly 21 minutes had gone by and it was 7-2 Heels.
Princeton would outshoot UNC 33-32 and have a 33-31 edge in ground balls.