Bucy Leads Tar Heels To Victory

All season long, senior Michael Bucy has been a consistent, yet quiet part of the third-ranked North Carolina men's soccer team.

Saturday night, in his last regular-season appearance under the lights of Fetzer Field, Bucy enjoyed being in the spotlight of the Tar Heel offense in a

4-1 victory against No. 18 Wake Forest.

Bucy scored his first-career hat trick and tied a career-high with six points.

"Michael Bucy was very, very determined today to decide the game for his team and have a great ending to his senior year," UNC coach Elmar Bolowich said.

"He has been all season long the type of guy who finds ways to win and get a foot in and have an impact in a game."

The win gave the Tar Heels

(16-2, 5-1 in the ACC) their 10th straight victory this season. The 16 overall wins are a record under Bolowich, while the five ACC victories are a school record.

Bucy's impact as a 6-foot-3, 195-pound midfielder helped in a game characterized by physical play more than UNC's usual wide-open running style.

"For us, it was actually great to see that we did adjust to that," Bolowich said. "We didn't back down, number one. Number two, we didn't get off of our rhythm, and it was very important for us."

The Tar Heels and Demon Deacons (10-5-1, 2-3) fought to a stand-still until the 39th minute of the game, when Bucy delivered the game's first goal.

UNC's Matt Crawford sent a perfect cross from the sideline that Bucy chested past Wake keeper Rob Vartughian.

UNC added another goal with a second left in the half, again by Bucy in front of the net.

After a Deacon foul near the 18-yard box, the referee stopped the clock because a Wake player kicked the ball away from a UNC player trying to get a shot in.

The stoppage allowed UNC to set up a final free kick. Freshman Grant Porter served the ball in, and it went off forward Caleb Norkus before going to Bucy, who completed the play from short range.

Bucy finished the hat trick in the 77th minute of the match with a header off a long pass from defender Danny Jackson.

UNC's Chris Carrieri extended his streak of games with a goal to a school-record 10 contests. Carrieri took the ball all the way from the midfield stripe and beat three defenders on his goal, bouncing the ball off the right post before it went in.

Wake Forest got on the board with five minutes to go in the match off of a penalty kick by Ben Stafford.

As exemplified by the fact that the Tar Heels have outscored their opponents 48-5 in their 10 consecutive wins, UNC showed that it is one of the best offensive and defensive teams in the country.

"We're used to in the past winning

1-0 or going into overtime," Carrieri said. "Stepping it up, winning 4-1, beating strong teams like this, it shows a lot of maturity, and it shows we can play with anybody."

The Sports Editor can be reached at

sports@unc.edu.