Chapel Hill, North Carolina – The North Carolina Tar Heels defeat the top ranked Maryland Terreapins 11-8 at home. Charlie Raffa played a great game in controlling the face off circle, but the Tar Heels too advantage of some timely saves by their goalie Kieran Burke and got balanced scoring from their offensive players to get their first win in ACC play this year.
The Heels opened up the scoring with a quick underhanded shot by Joey Sankey, off an assist from Pat Foster. The Terps got two straight after consecutive wins by Charlie Raffa at the face off X. The first by Colin Heacock to tie the game at one.. The second goal was scored by Connor Connizzaro to give the Terps an early 2-1 lead. Carolina would get two back to take the lead. Pat Foster scored on an extra man opportunity. Chad Tutton scored on a great individual effort to give the Heels the lead again at 3-2.
The second quarter opens up with another face off win by Raffa, who help the edge decidedly losing only one face off. A great save by Kieran Burke on a Maryland two-man advantage on Maryland’s Rustin Bryant allowed the Heels to erase the penalty. After trading possessions back and forth, the Terps tie the game at three. Connizzaro gets his second goal of the game cutting through the middle of the Carolina defense. After the Terps win the next face off, Michael Ehrhardt scores off an assist from Raffa. The Tar Heels answer immediately with Shane Simpson scoring off an assist from Sankey to tie the game at four again. Walker Chafee scores on another Carolina extra man opportunity to give them the lead back at 5-4. The lead increased to two at 6-4 after Niko Amato makes a save for the Terps, but Spencer Parks finds the rebound and scores.
The second half opens with Mike Chanenchuk scoring off a drive down the middle to pull the Terrapins with one. Pat Foster increases the lead back to two with a backhand shot from around the back of the cage to beat Amato. The lead goes back to one with Brian Cooper scoring off a full field transition that started Niko Amato making a save and making the outlet to Cooper.
Yet another answer by Carolina to lead by two again when Shane Simpson gets his second of the game off a right handed sweep from the midfield. Carolina leads at 8 -6. Joe Locascio scores off a shot from the top of the box, an assist from Connizzaro to again bring the Tar Heel lead to one at 8-7. The third quarter ends with teams trading goals for the entire period and the lead at one.
Carolina opens up the scoring in the fourth quarter as Joey Sankey gets his second tally of the game on a drive to the goal. Billy Bitter gets his first of the game to increase the Carolina lead to three. He drove from behind the goal and beat his defenseman and Amato low to make the score 10-7. Heacock gets his second of the game a minute later as Chanenchuk found him in front of the cage and Heacock scored on a backhand shot to beat Burke.
The Tar Heels create a turnover into offense as Jake Bailey scores in transition. He went end to end after picking up the loose ball and put a low angle shot away to get the lead back to three. Carolina was able to run out almost the remainder of the game combined with some good saves by Burke. The Tar Heels win 11-8 to get their first win of the year in the ACC. The top ranked Terps lose their first game of the season.
North Carolina next travels to Baltimore to take on the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays. Next up for Maryland is Virginia at home in College Park.
