High Point is 1-1 on the season after beating Delaware 15-10 and falling to Duke 13-16. Matt Thistle has totaled eleven points on the season, followed by Dan Lomas and Michael Leclair, who have both scrounged up nine points each. Cole Carns is not far behind as he has netted seven goals alone. Senior goalie, Austin Geisler has registered a 54 percent save average making 31 saves so far in 2015.
North Carolina is also 1-0 with a commanding 19 to 5 win over Furman just three days ago. Twelve different players tallied a point for UNC with Joey Sankey and Jimmy Bitter leading the way for a combined eleven points. Senior Dunkin Saunders made an appearance in cage for the last 30 minutes, making one save and letting in one goal and freshman Brian Balkam got the start between the pipes, making six saves and allowing three goals.
In last years mid April meeting between these two teams, the Tar Heels downed the Panthers 12 to 8. HPU trailed UNC by one goal heading into the fourth before Coach Breschi’s team hit the gas. High Points defense has a busy night ahead of them with the rowdy UNC offense and an attack unit that had all three players tally a hat-trick.
The battle at the X will be a deciding factor in this game. Jamie Pilso went 13-33 at Duke and 18-28 at UDel. While his counterpart, Stephen Kelly, went 12-21 against the Paladins.
What will be interesting today is if Kieran Burke steps into the pipes for the Tar Heels with the High Point team showing they can play after downing Delaware by five and only losing to Duke by three. Leclair picked up six points (2G, 4A), while Thistle was kept quiet on the goal count but recorded four assists and Carns scored four goals against the Blue Devils.
Game time has been changed to 6pm on Navy Field at UNC’s Turf Facility.
