WINSTON-SALEM — With less than a minute to play, and a national championship hanging in the balance, North Carolina field hockey coach Karen Shelton went to her money player.
And Dani Forword cashed in.
The senior captain took junior Katelyn Falgowski’s penalty corner feed and drilled a shot into the back of the cage with 11.7 seconds remaining to give the North Carolina field hockey team (20-2) a 3-2 victory against Maryland and the program’s sixth NCAA Championship.
“Melanie Brill on my left just kept repeating out loud, ‘I believe in you, I believe in you, I believe in you,’ even when they were rushing out just before I took that shot,” Forword said of her game winner.
“There’s nothing like knowing that your teammates really need this and that they do believe in you, and I don’t know what it was that came over me, but it went in.”
Forword’s goal provided a fitting conclusion to a game chock full of drama.
From the outset, Maryland (23-1) appeared to have the upper hand, yet none of the Terrapins’ eight first-half shots could get past Tar Heel keeper Jackie Kintzer, who culminated her impressive postseason performance by making five saves in the opening stanza to keep Maryland off the scoreboard.
Seven minutes into the second half, Maryland finally converted, generating a 2-on-1 fast break opportunity that resulted in a Nicole Muracco goal to take a 1-0 lead.
Down a goal against the nation’s top-ranked team, the Tar Heels drew encouragement from the words of inspiration delivered earlier by senior Riley Foster during the halftime break.
“(Riley said) it’s her last 35 minutes, and she’s going to do everything she can on the field, and that just gave us extra motivation,” senior Illse Davids said.
With fewer than 10 minutes remaining in their collegiate careers, two of Foster’s fellow seniors took her words to heart.
As Maryland attempted to clear the ball from its half, Brill dove to the ground, managing to get her stick on the ball and send it back in the shooting circle to Forword.
Forword turned, beat her defender and fired a blast into the cage to even the score at 1-1 with 9:23 to play.
But before the UNC fans in attendance could finish celebrating, the Terrapins answered with a Megan Frazer goal off a penalty corner to take a 2-1 lead.
After Frazer’s goal, Shelton called a time-out and pulled Kintzer, a gamble that allowed the Tar Heels to field an extra attacker with 7:49 to go in the game.
“I’d rather go out in a blaze then just not do anything,” Shelton said of pulling Kintzer.
“I think in a national championship game you have to dare to be brilliant.”
Shelton certainly looked brilliant three minutes later, when Davids dribbled left and launched a shot into the top netting of the goal, evening the score at 2-2.
But Forword and the Tar Heels weren’t finished just yet.
With less than a minute left, North Carolina drew a penalty corner, and Shelton called Forword’s No. 22 on a direct hit play.
Freshman defender Caitlin Van Sickle placed the insert, Falgowski made the stop and Forword worked her magic, unleashing a missile that soared over Maryland keeper Alicia Grater before smashing against the backboard to put UNC ahead to stay.
“It was actually a beautiful moment,” Forword said.
“I did it for everyone, so I’m just lucky it went in.”
And when UNC officially won their sixth title 11.7 seconds later, even Shelton knew that this championship would be tough to top.
“This one was different just because we were such an underdog, and we came from behind in such dramatic fashion,” Shelton said.
“To win it with 11 seconds on the clock was an incredible thrill.”
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
