Emotions flare in men’s soccer 2-2 tie against Duke

It took almost the entire 90 minutes of regulation, but emotion finally got the best of someone Friday night in North Carolina’s 2-2 tie with Duke.

Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, that someone was freshman defender Jordan McCrary.

McCrary earned UNC’s first red card of the season with less than four minutes to play in regulation, leaving the Tar Heels to finish the game a man down.

McCrary aggressively slid into a Blue Devil forward right in front of the UNC bench. Before the two players could stand, a melee of shoving broke out above them.

The Tar Heels were given a team yellow card for the altercation.

“The red card was fair. It was in front of us. I can’t argue. He went high with his feet,” coach Carlos Somoano said. “I think it sums it up for us. I don’t think he was intending in any way to hurt anybody. He went hard, he got excited when he saw the ball there and he went with everything.”

The red card was not McCrary’s first tangle with a Blue Devil in the contest.

About 33 minutes into the game, McCrary made a play on the ball near the sideline and almost stepped over the sliding Riley Wolfe, a Duke midfielder, but got tripped up at the last second.

McCrary popped up and got right in Wolfe’s ear — barking out trash talk.

The smack talking might have thrown Wolfe off his game momentarily, since less than five minutes later he would be responsible for the own goal that eliminated Duke’s early 1-0 lead.

Senior defender Matt Hedges, a Butler transfer who was playing in his first Duke-UNC game, noticed a lot of trash talk out on the field and said he understands why his teammates approached Duke that way.

“It’s one of the best soccer conferences in the country and everybody wants to win so I can’t blame them,” Hedges said. “They just want to get in the opponent’s head.”

But Somoano was more concerned with the heads of the players on his own team, not the other.

“We played all heart tonight and not quite enough brains,” he said. “I can’t blame our guys for that. I think we created an exciting game. If we had done a little more thinking and a little less emotion, I think we could have come out with the win tonight.”

Regardless of the deadlocked outcome, the game provided plenty of action, something that junior Enzo Martinez attributes to the nature of the rivalry.

“It’s such a huge rivalry that it gets too intense, it gets mentally tough,” Martinez said. “You just want to win every tackle and you want to get everything right. That’s why these games are the most fun to play because it’s very physical, and it demands a lot from your body.

“That’s why we live. That’s what we came to UNC to play games like this.”

Contact the Sports Editor

at sports@dailytarheel.com.