MEN'S LACROSSE
Robert Morris - 4
UNC - 16
New lacrosse coach Joe Breschi is now the proud holder of a 100 percent winning record at North Carolina.
Sure it's after one game — but for now" that's enough.
""I'm happy. It feels great"" he said with a grin after the game. I'm very proud of the guys' effort …
""We came out of the gate strong" and kind of worked through a little bit of the tentativeness. In the second quarter" we made things happen.""
UNC beat Robert Morris with a decisive 16-4 victory in its season-opener Saturday and showed off — for the first time — Breschi's new ""dominating"" style of offense.
""Coach always has harped on us coming out right out of the gate and starting off well" and I think we really did that today" said junior Gavin Petracca, who scored four goals in the game, each assisted by a different player.
Overall"" I think we played really hard the whole game.""
Sophomore Billy Bitter — who had a career-high five goals off three different assists — credited the team's success (and his own) to offensive passing.
""I just played hard" every second of the game and it's a team game he said. A lot of those goals I had came from assists" so it was a good team effort.""
In total" eight Tar Heels registered at least one goal and nine managed at least one assist. That didn't escape Breschi's eye" either.
""I think one thing the offense did do is they shared the ball" he said. When we do that when we're organized and we share the ball" good things happen.""
UNC finished with 63 shots to RMU's 27 — only 18 of which were on target.
Fewer shots meant fewer saves"" though preseason All-America goalie Grant Zimmerman still managed 12 on the day.
""He played terrific" Breschi said. He gave up a few that we had breakdowns defensively but I think overall … he came up big when he had to" and he did a great job clearing the ball.""
The Tar Heels cleared on 16 of 20 opportunities in the game"" including perfect 6-of-6 and 4-of-4 in the first and third quarters.
But transition work is something Petracca hopes the Tar Heels can improve on before their next game.
""We've been working on that" pushing the tempo really all season and all during practice and I think we really started to get the grasp of it" he said. But we didn't get quite as much transition as we wanted to.""
Breschi credited that to a varied defense from the Colonials" including man" zone and match-up defenses.
""They did a lot of different things to us to kind of disrupt our flow" which worked he said. It slowed us down" we didn't get the ball up and down the field as much as we would have liked.""
But Breschi said that after UNC adapted and overcame an early hesitation" the team was able to excel.
A strong UNC defense kept RMU to only two goals in the first 46 minutes of the game.
But after a slower third quarter for the Tar Heels two more Colonial goals brought the score to 10-4.
Breschi credited the RMU keeper for his work in the second half — with 35 UNC shots on goal" Sal Barcia was able to stop 19 of them.
""Their goalie played a heck of a game and really kind of kept them in it"" Breschi said. We were able to break through late in the fourth.""
Six goals in the last six minutes — while holding RMU scoreless — sealed the blow-out victory for the Tar Heels.
Bitter said one thing that kept the team focused was getting its new coach a win in his first game.
""Very important. A win like this" scoring a lot of goals everyone played hard" it was a clean game — it was a big win for us.""
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
