The North Carolina men’s soccer team had a clear advantage in the shots column in their season opener against Monmouth, but it took two overtime periods for the No. 4 Tar Heels to finally capture a 1-0 victory.
The teams were locked in a scoreless draw for 103 minutes before junior forward Tyler Engel settled a pass at the top of the box and curled a shot towards the upper-left corner of the goal. The ball sailed just out of the keeper’s reach and won the game for the Tar Heels.
The goal marks the first of the season for UNC, as well as Engel’s first in a Carolina uniform after transferring from Southern Methodist. Defenders Jordan McCrary and Nick Williams both received credit for an assist on the goal.
With 12 shots to Monmouth’s two, UNC had the aggressive edge for much of the game while the Hawks played with a more defensive style.
After going to halftime with just one shot on goal, the Tar Heels put together a number of scoring opportunities in the second half, many of which came from their seven corner kicks in the period.
Senior midfielder Chipper Root curled two different corners into the penalty box that were both narrowly punched away from goal by the keeper.
Perhaps UNC’s best chance before the goal came in the 29th minute when senior forward Josh Rice sent the ball into the box from the corner and a sliding Engel knocked it just left of the goal.
A similar opportunity came in the 99th minute as McCrary slipped past two defenders in the corner and crossed the ball into the penalty box, but no one could redirect it towards the goal.
McCrary orchestrated several attacks from the corner throughout the game and played a role in keeping the pressure on Monmouth’s defense.
Monmouth’s offense centered around repeated attempts to lob the ball over UNC’s defensive line. But they failed to ever really test junior goalkeeper Brendan Moore, who posted a shutout in his first regular season start for North Carolina.
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