UNC men's lacrosse falters after losing 3-goal lead

For the second time in the No. 11 North Carolina men’s lacrosse team’s first four games, it held a three-goal lead against a ranked opponent in the fourth quarter.

But a fourth quarter rally by No. 2 Notre Dame (3-0) Saturday, similar to that of Massachusetts two weeks ago, handed UNC a disappointing 10-9 triple overtime road loss.

“I thought the momentum was clearly on our side,” coach Joe Breschi said. “Playing a great team like Notre Dame you can’t make some of the mistakes we made down the stretch.”

The second half rally by the Fighting Irish started with domination of one of the best face-off specialists in the country — UNC junior R.G. Keenan.

In UNC’s first three games, Keenan won more than 60 percent of his face-offs, but against Notre Dame none of that mattered. Between Keenan and junior Frankie Kelly, UNC was one-for-11 at the face-off X in the second half.

“We lean on them a lot because they’re the ones giving us the ball,” sophomore Jimmy Bitter said. “It’s frustrating because (Notre Dame) is a team that holds it too.”

Late game face-off woes decreased time of possession for the Tar Heels and boosted an already strong Fighting Irish attack, highlighted by freshman Matt Kavanagh’s four goals and two assists.

“He’s a great finisher,” Breschi said, but conceded that he was helped by strong upperclassmen.

“Their veterans took over, and he was the recipient of it.”

Possessions being hard to come by for the Tar Heels (2-2), Bitter and the UNC attack had to take full advantage of every opportunity they got in the second half.

Though Bitter and fellow sophomore Joey Sankey did so in the third quarter by having a hand in all four of UNC goals, in the fourth quarter, the UNC attack proved to be less opportunistic.

Bitter attributed the third quarter successes to UNC’s speed setting up its offense and said the attack lost that speed in the fourth quarter.

“We kind of lost that because we were winning,” Bitter said. “We had to play a little more slowed down.”

As the game came down to the wire, the Tar Heels saw a two-goal lead turn into a tied game forcing overtime.

A man-up goal by Notre Dame in the last minute followed by another Fighting Irish goal by Kavanagh tied up the game with 11 seconds on the clock.

For the next eight minutes of overtime play, both defenses stood strong, but when the third overtime started, a quick strike by the Fighting Irish ended the game.

“It’s definitely a terrible feeling,” Bitter said. “We played one of our better games and it was a game we should’ve had.”

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