Tar Heel men's lacrosse defeats Cavaliers

When Kieran Burke was 6 years old, he picked up a lacrosse stick for the first time. As he was playing in the backyard of his New York home with his two older brothers, the North Carolina lacrosse team defeated Virginia in Klockner Stadium for the last time in the regular season — until this weekend.

On Saturday, the freshman goalkeeper, along with his fellow Tar Heels defeated the Cavaliers 10-7.

Burke was a long way away from his childhood games in the backyard. Instead of playing with his two brothers — who would also end up wearing UNC jerseys — he was thinking about how Albany’s goalie could have possibly registered 20 saves in a matchup with Johns Hopkins Friday night.

“I was like, ‘Geez … That’s ridiculous. How did he get that many?” he said.

That same feeling of disbelief hit him Saturday. Burke looked to the scoreboard and saw that he, himself, had recorded 23 saves, the most number of saves by a UNC goalie since Paul Spellman’s 25 in 2003.

“I literally thought I had maybe 15 saves at the end of the game, and the next thing I know it’s 23,” Burke said.

It should come as no surprise that his performance merited his coach’s praises.

“I thought he was under a lot of pressure from the Virginia offense. They tend to shoot a lot. I thought he did a nice job of forcing tougher shots, low angle opportunities,” coach Joe Breschi said.

“He did a nice job of making the saves he should and then making some spectacular saves.”

Breschi said he was pleased with the defensive efforts of his squad, but that his offense must learn to power through late game situations.

“We didn’t have a great day at the face-off X,” Breschi said. “We didn’t have a great day in our special teams area, yet we still found a way to win. I think that’s the thing to be most pleased about.”

Marcus Holman led the offensive attack, scoring a hat trick and adding three assists.

Jimmy Bitter, Joey Sankey and Chad Tutton all scored two goals each, and Davey Emala netted one. Sankey’s two goals were the 49th and 50th of his UNC career, a milestone he was unaware of until Sunday.

“I didn’t even realize. I had no idea,” he said.

As Breschi predicted, Sankey gave the credit to his teammates.

“It’s awesome being able to play with attackmen like Marcus Holman, Jimmy Bitter. We’re really building a strong bond on the field and it’s really helping,” he said.

“Playing with them makes it a lot easier to score goals when you have two great attackmen right next to you.”

But Sankey praised Burke’s play the most.

“Our defense — they’re the one that really deserves credit for that win. Especially goalkeeper Kieran Burke.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.