Tar Heels stymied by overtime tie

CARY - With about 13 minutes to play in Wednesday's soccer game at SAS Soccer Park, N.C. State forward Aaron King corralled a through ball, threw a fake and deposited a shot into an open North Carolina net. The goal - the first of the night for either team - looked like enough to win the game.

With about 56 seconds to play, UNC forward Ben Hunter, an NAIA transfer who had converted a penalty shot for his first Tar Heel goal only minutes earlier, struck a beautiful direct free kick that sailed directly over the head of Wolfpack keeper Jorge Gonzalez and into the back of the net. The goal, which put No. 2 UNC up, 2-1, looked like enough to win the game.

Enough, that is, until King literally kick-started one of the most remarkable sequences you'll ever see - one that knotted the score and sent UNC (4-0-1, 0-0-1 in the ACC) back to Chapel Hill with a 2-2 tie rather than a 2-1 win.

With just two seconds left to play, King knifed through the UNC defense and blasted a shot that struck the crossbar, ricocheting away harmlessly. Or so it seemed.

N.C. State midfielder El Hadj Cisse knew better, though - and he took advantage, tapping the rebound past Ford Williams, the stunned UNC goalkeeper, with just 0.5 seconds remaining. Tie game.

"That was a hell of a shot," said UNC coach Elmar Bolowich. "Ford did what he could, but the guy nailed it. - It was a nice play on their part."

Williams, rendered helpless by the long rebound, couldn't believe what he'd seen.

"It was pretty shocking," he said. "I've never had that happen before."

So shocking, in fact, that Williams immediately ran to the referee and began pleading his case to disallow the goal.

"I felt like it's kind of hard for a clock to stop on 0.5 seconds," he said. "I was just speaking my mind there, seeing if I could get something out of it. You always gotta try."

The game went to a pair of 10-minute overtimes, but neither team scored - giving the Tar Heels a tie in a game they should have won.

"A tie always feels like a loss," Williams said. "Obviously we want victories, but at the same time, we battled, and the team last year wouldn't have pulled through that game the way we did."

Williams was referring to the fact that UNC had a chance to win at all, an outcome that seemed unlikely after King's goal - the first of the season against the Tar Heels.

"We came through pretty well in the second half," Hunter said. "We can hold our heads high - we played well."

After a first half that was about as exciting as a Friday morning recitation, Hunter was the main reason for UNC's improved play in the second.

His first goal came on a penalty shot awarded after an N.C. State defender's hand clipped a Brian Shriver shot just inside the box with 6:48 to play.

"I just pick my spot," Hunter said. "He (guessed the location) right, but it went in anyway."

And Hunter's second score appeared to give the Tar Heels the lead for good.

Disappointing as it was, Williams said he thinks the tie against the Wolfpack (3-2-1, 0-0-1 ACC), will prove to be a mere bump in the road as UNC heads into a brutal five-game stretch that includes four games against ranked teams.

"I feel like we can definitely go ahead and go on a streak again," Williams said. "It won't be difficult to do."

 

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