Tar Heel defense helps shut down Titans in 18-8 win

Entering the North Carolina lacrosse team’s home opener Saturday, coach Joe Breschi knew his team was lopsided. The attack — one of the best in the nation. The defense — inexperienced, for starters.

As expected, the attack flourished against outmatched Detroit. Not quite as expected, the defense shut down the Titans for most of the game in the 18-8 victory.

But rather than putting the pressure on just the long poles to come up with stops, the entire Tar Heel team helped out the defense. They did that mostly by not giving Detroit many chances.

UNC took 19-of-27 faceoffs, allowing Detroit to start in its offense just eight times. R.G. Keenan took most of UNC’s faceoffs, winning 16-of-18 before being subbed out for a reserve.

“When you’re winning faceoffs, good stuff happens,” Breschi said. “That’s always a key — having possession and not having to make a stop to get the ball.”

The Tar Heels also had a 51-32 advantage on ground balls, using those loose-ball chances to get possession and retain it.

Defenseman Kieran McDonald said it’s important for UNC to win the ball more because the greatest strength of the team lies with the attack.

“Today the ball was in the offensive zone a lot, so they were doing a great job possessing the ball,” McDonald said. “When they’re pushing the goals, that takes a lot of pressure off of us, so I think they should get a lot of hype for that.

“It’s the best feeling after a faceoff to just hang around and rest for a minute.”

When put in the position to make plays, the defensive inconsistency shined through.

There were positives. UNC forced 25 turnovers and the defense successfully cleared the ball 22-of-24 times.

Goalkeeper Steven Rastivo made eight saves and only allowed five goals in the three quarters in which he played.

But intermingled with the positives were examples of an inexperienced defense.

On one possession late in the first quarter, sophomore Duncan Hutchins raced back and keyed a Tar Heel defense that clogged together and stifled a Detroit transition attack. However, just moments before that, he had an unforced turnover that resulted in a fast-break goal for the Titans.

UNC reserves broke down late in the game, allowing three goals that were largely uncontested.

“We need to put it together and play solid team defense,” Breschi said. “A lot of times we don’t have the second slider or the third slider, or a lot of times our voices aren’t as loud as they should be. It’s going to be a work in progress … they’re really inexperienced.”

But in the end, the work in progress didn’t hurt UNC. Breschi is careful to take too much out of the game against Detroit, a program in its fourth year.

While he expects a strong attack every game, he also expected a strong defensive presence in this one in particular.

“They weren’t tested,” Breschi said. “I think as we start getting into the meat of our schedule with Navy next week, they’ll start to get tested a little more.

“We played hard, but I don’t think we played smart all the time.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.