Men's soccer ties Demon Deacons

With just one minute left to play Saturday night, the No. 1 North Carolina men’s soccer team had a 1-0 victory nearly wrapped up against No. 24 Wake Forest.

But with the eighth corner of the day for Wake Forest, Michael Gamble connected with Jalen Robinson to send the game into yet another overtime for the Tar Heels — one that would end in a 1-1 tie and deny them their first conference victory.

Despite the tie, coach Carlos Somoano was pleased with his team’s performance.

“I thought we played very well,” he said. “I’m very proud of our guys. (They) performed exceptionally well. We just didn’t have the composure to see the game off the way I would have hoped.

“But at the same time Wake Forest scored a very nice goal…it’s not like we completely goofed it up either. So all in all our performance was quite good yesterday. I think the game was just a very, very good soccer game.”

UNC was in control of the game for the first half and a good portion of the second, thanks to what forward Josh Rice calls UNC’s best performance of the season.

“I thought we really came out hard. We had our best press that we have had this season,” Rice said. “I mean we were winning balls in the midfield pressing up real high, and we had a bunch of opportunities to score.”

The Tar Heels out shot the Deacons in both halves of regulation, with six in the first and eight in the second compared to four and seven by Wake Forest.

The only UNC shot to find the back of the net was one from Rice in the 25th minute — his first of the season.

“He got played a nice entry ball at the top of the 18 and really had a very good turn and a very good shot on goal at the far post,” Somoano said.

It was an extremely rewarding goal for Rice, who hadn’t scored a goal in two years.

“You know it was really, really relieving,” Rice said. “A feeling that all the hard work that I’ve put into soccer — everything day in and day out — I finally got paid, is kind of what it felt like.”

But Somoano and Rice both said that they missed several opportunities to put more goals on the board.

“Soccer is won by goals scored, so it doesn’t matter,” Somoano said. “If the ball doesn’t go into the back of the net you don’t get a point, so you know, we need to score more goals. That’s the bottom line.”

Somoano said the team is pleased it hasn’t lost yet during a tough conference schedule, but getting wins is important.

“We’ve played a very tough schedule and haven’t been beaten in the conference yet,” he said. “Yes, we need to win games, we’re trying to win games and we will win games in the conference.

“We’re going to make it happen. Somehow, some way.”

sports@dailytarheel.com