Senior Forword nets late title-winning goal

WINSTON-SALEM — Dani Forword said North Carolina would win the national championship — a week before it did.

After defeating Wake Forest to advance to the final four, the senior forward ultimately predicted her team’s win against Maryland.

“This is where we are going to win the national championship,” she said.

One week later, it was Forword who would fulfill her own prophecy against a Maryland team that hadn’t even sniffed defeat this season.

Forword scored a game-tying goal and later stole the victory with just 11 seconds left on the clock.

“She’s a money player,” UNC coach Karen Shelton said. “You can count on a player like that. She’s so offensive minded and she’s a goal-scorer. She’s a natural goal-scorer.”

Forword displayed that natural ability with the game-clinching goal against Maryland.

The play came after North Carolina forced a penalty corner in the final minute of the 2-2 game.

The Tar Heels hadn’t scored once on a penalty corner in that game — an area in which they usually excel — but this one was different.

“I was struggling a lot in the first half from nerves, and the adrenaline was eating up my energy too,” Forword said.

But in this moment, amid the deafening screams of the crowd, Forword heard four calm, reassuring words from her teammates around her: “I believe in you.”

The Tar Heels continued to repeat that message.

Then the play commenced.

UNC junior midfielder Katelyn Falgowski stopped freshman back Caitlyn Van Sickle’s pass smoothly with her stick and left the rest up to Forword.

The Maryland corner defenders charged out of the net to stop the shot while Forword, with her teammates’ words still resonating in her head, took a powerful step to the ball and drilled it. Like a missile, the ball sailed past the Maryland defenders and goalkeeper to seal UNC’s 3-2 win.

“It was meant to be a straight shot, and so it was coming to me,” Forword said. “It’s a huge risk because I’ve been off on some of my straight hits, but I guess having your teammates screaming, ‘I believe in you, I believe in you’ … I mean, I had tingles before I took that shot. Maybe it was a higher power. I don’t know. It was beautiful. It was an amazing feeling.”

After the goal, Forword fell to her knees, arms raised in the air as the other UNC players dropped their sticks, ran at Forword and celebrated the goal in one big, blue mob.

It was a scene of shock and triumph. But Forword hadn’t even begun to think about the magnitude of her shot.

“I landed on my knees and everyone landed on me so I hurt my left knee, which is my good knee,” Forword said. “And I just thought, ‘I’ll be in treatments this week, yay’.”

Forword’s goal marked the end of her team’s remarkable comeback in the final 10 minutes of the game. What UNC did was improbable, but not impossible.

Forword finished her national championship run scoring six goals in UNC’s four NCAA tournament games and was named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team.

The senior who knew more fervently than anyone else what she was capable of had delivered once again.

 “It’s a beautiful way to end it, you know, to go out in my senior year with a winning goal,” Forword said.

“I can’t ask for much more and I’m just so thankful.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.