Despite a furious volley of second half shots, the No. 4 North Carolina men's soccer team could not break through the defense of No. 9 Creighton, falling 1-0 on Saturday night in Chapel Hill.
The lone goal of the game came in the final ten minutes of the first half. Senior defender Jonathan Campbell attempted a clear, but the ball ricocheted off the back of senior midfielder Raby George and rolled to the feet of Creighton's Timo Pitter.
Pitter took a few steps, then fired a shot that deflected off the foot of Campbell. Redshirt senior keeper Sam Euler — starting in place of redshirt first year keeper James Pyle, who was out with a head injury — could not adjust in time as the ball rolled into the right side of the net.
Other than that goal, UNC dominated possession during the first half. A Blue Jay offense that had mustered 50 goals this season was held mostly in check with only three shots. Meanwhile, the Tar Heels fired off seven shots, many of them coming from long range.
Those long range shots continued in the second half. The Tar Heels blasted shot after shot from long distance, as the Blue Jays packed the box on defense. Despite the flurry of shots, nearly all of them missed the mark and were not on frame for UNC. Only four of UNC's 21 shots were on frame, and those four were all saved by Creighton keeper Connor Sparrow.
UNC's best chance to get the equalizer came in a rapid sequence of play during the final fifteen minutes. Junior midfielder Omar Holness made a run into the box and went down, but the ref didn't call the foul. The ball came back out to sophomore forward Alan Winn, who ripped a long range shot that Sparrow was barely able to get a hand on to save. On the ensuing corner kick, sophomore defender Colton Storm fired another shot from long range that drifted inches over the crossbar. The next time down the field, sophomore midfielder David October lofted a long cross intended for the head of Hume that somehow missed the mark.
But Creighton withstood the Tar Heels' bombardment, holding on to advance to the next round and ending the Tar Heels' season.
Quotable
"We were pretty hard to handle tonight in most categories, except in the one that mattered. To score a goal requires composure in a very quick, split second moment. Sometimes it just doesn't go in, and tonight we just didn't have the quality, or we just didn't come up with the play I guess is a better way to put it. There's only one significant stat in soccer tonight, and that's goals scored." — UNC Coach Carlos Somoano on his team's missed opportunities.
