Holness goal hoists Tar Heels past South Florida

The North Carolina men’s soccer team looked much different when the whistle sounded to start the first round NCAA Tournament game against South Florida.

The biggest difference involved where ACC All-Freshman midfielder Omar Holness took his place on the field. After playing every game of the season as a midfielder, coach Carlos Somoano decided to play the former Jamaican national player up top in the forward position.

“We made some changes,” Somoano said after the game. “Something we’ve been thinking about for a while.”

Those changes paid off immediately for Somoano and the Tar Heels, as Holness connected on corner kick from junior forward Cooper Vandermaas-Peeler, and volleyed the ball into the back of the net.

The fourth-minute goal was the only one of the night, and with a stout defensive line, it was enough for UNC to grab a 1-0 victory and advance to the next round of the tournament.

“The corner kick, it’s something that we’ve been working on in practice day in day out,” Holness said. “So I knew what to expect and when I got my opportunity (I) put it away.”

During a season where the team was creating chance after chance but struggling to get the result, the Tar Heels were rejuvenated by picking up a goal on their first shot of the game.

But for Boyd Okwuono, the captain of the team and cog of the defense, it didn’t matter when the team scored — all that mattered was that at the end of the night, North Carolina had more goals than South Florida.

“Whenever we get the goal — whether it’s in the first minute or the last minute — we’ll take it,” the junior defender said. “A win’s a win so we don’t really count on, like, when we get the goals.

“If we get it too early, too late it doesn’t really affect our game. We just gotta score more than our opponent so that’s what we go for.”

That game plan worked out well for Okuono and company Thursday night, and they shut out the Bulls and limited them on the night to just five shots — only two of which were goal.

In addition to Holness starting as a forward, Jordan McCrary was brought up to use his creative playing style as a midfielder rather than his traditional role as a defender.

Somoano said that the loss to Clemson in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament left the team with the time to get used to the adjusted starting lineup.

“The irony of it is when we lost to Clemson it gave us nine days to prepare, and it gave us a chance to look at something else that we’ve been wanting to do for a while,” he said. “It provided us an opportunity to take a look at some other things and I thought it was pretty good.”

Another thing the Tar Heels are going to have to adjust to is the tough play of the NCAA Tournament. With teams facing a season-ending defeat from the start of the tournament on, Somoano said he and his players know that the games are going to be more physical.

The next test for the Tar Heels comes Sunday, against UC-Irvine.

“I’m very proud of our boys to battle hard and come through with the victory and move on,” Somoano said. “We get to go to California. We’re excited.”

sports@dailytarheel.com