UNC men's soccer advances to third straight College Cup

For the third game in a row, the North Carolina men’s soccer team battled through a furious 90 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtimes to find five players facing a guarded net for a shootout.

“It seems to be a standard now that we’re playing, we’re playing, we’re pushing the tempo,” UNC coach Elmar Bolowich said. “We’re getting the shot and we are still tied at the end of regulation, we are still tied at the end of overtime.”

And for the third time in the NCAA Tournament, UNC advanced past a tie game on penalty kicks in an almost routine-like fashion — this time in a 4-2 decision after a 1-1 tie with Southern Methodist University in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.

The fifth-seeded Mustangs struck early, when fourth-seeded North Carolina allowed its opponent to score in the quickest amount of time all season. Just five minutes into the game, Arthur Ivo took a cross from the right side of the field and put SMU ahead 1-0 with a shot directed to the right of UNC keeper Scott Goodwin, who played left.

Five minutes later, though, North Carolina had an answer of its own.

Sophomore Enzo Martinez streaked up the right side of Fetzer Field and found junior Kirk Urso inside, who tallied his fifth goal of the season on a powerful shot sent to the left side of the back of the net.

“The first goal that we scored after they put one in was really what lifted us up because at that time we had little to show for, and Enzo broke free on the outside and Kirk made a great run into the box and finished it off with that shot,” Bolowich said.

From there, UNC and SMU seemed on par with each other in the first half. Each team registered equal numbers after 45 minutes of play, firing six shots and three corner kicks with each keeper coming up with one save apiece.

But a clean slate in the second half quickly turned into a Tar Heel edge, as North Carolina outshot the Mustangs 12-2. No matter how much momentum UNC gained, each breakaway run or skillfully placed cross was unable to find the back of the net for the remainder of regulation and throughout overtime — where the Tar Heels once again outshot SMU, 7-2.

“It’s frustrating, but at the same time we’re creating opportunities so we were just trying to stay focused and keep telling each other that the next one’s going in,” Urso said. “It’s a plus that our team’s creating that many opportunities, it’s just a matter of us finishing them.”

As SMU’s Josue Soto fired the first penalty kick to the top right corner of the goal, Goodwin misread the shot and dove left. The shot, mere inches displaced, bounced off the crossbar and registered as a miss for the Mustangs.

In his third round of defending, Goodwin was right on target. In a save that Bolowich described as “all guts and all reflex,” the diving keeper deflected senior Leone Cruz’s shot toward the left side and all but ensured UNC’s trip to the final four.

Senior Michael Farfan, Urso and senior Drew McKinney all placed goals behind SMU’s Craig Hill, but it was senior transfer Jalil Anibaba who sealed the team’s chances at a national title.

The Tar Heels now advance to the coveted College Cup for the third year in a row as the first team in history to advance to the College Cup without actually winning a game in the NCAA Tournament. With their goals of winning a national championship fully in reach, the Tar Heels sprinted around the field in celebration behind a fleeing Anibaba.

“To be honest, I was just trying to stay away from everybody cause I didn’t want to get tackled,” Anibaba said.

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