Backup goalie gets save in UNC men's lacrosse win over Hofstra

There were three minutes and 12 seconds remaining in the North Carolina men’s lacrosse team’s matchup with Hofstra Saturday night in Hempstead, N.Y.

Senior Marcus Holman had scored his 16th career hat trick, and his three goals put him just 14 goals behind North Carolina’s all-time leading scorer.

The Tar Heels had handily taken a 14-5 lead against the Pride, a lead they would hold onto until the final horn.

Almost all of backup goalkeeper Bradley Dunn’s extended family had come to the game to see the newest addition to UNC’s squad play, but they did not expect him to see the field.

They certainly could never have imagined that Dunn would steal the show.

Dunn, a member of the UNC club lacrosse team in 2011 and 2012, had tried out for the varsity squad both his freshman and sophomore years, and was cut both times.

On March 24, coach Joe Breschi sent Dunn an email, notifying him that there was a goalie position open. Several of UNC’s goalies had been injured, and Breschi wanted Dunn to serve as Kieran Burke’s backup.

“It was an email on a Sunday basically just kind of handing me my dream on a silver platter,” Dunn said.

“Immediately, I stood up and I told my friend Andrew that I got the email, and he and I were so pumped up. We actually couldn’t stop talking about it for the rest of the day.”

So when Dunn stepped on the field for the first time in his UNC career Saturday night, the moment he had been anticipating his entire life had finally come.

With 1:51 remaining, Hofstra’s Aaron Jones fired a shot at Dunn. Fittingly, Dunn saved it — sending UNC’s sidelines into a frenzy.

“What a storybook situation for him,” Breschi said.

“We call him up off the (Sigma Alpha Epsilon) couch and say, ‘Hey, do you have any interest in jumping on board and playing?’ He steps in there and takes a lot of shots from our players in practice and just the opportunity to get him in the game — he’s a terrific young man.”

Breschi said it has been quite the experience to see his athletes rally around Dunn. His new teammates couldn’t be happier about his arrival.

“He steps in and lets the first team and second team guys just hit him with shots, and he does it with a smile on his face,” Holman said. “I couldn’t imagine standing in front of the shots that he sees in practice, so it’s definitely taken a lot of courage on his part.

“We were all excited when he got that save. We all felt great as a team.”

Dunn’s save gave him a 100 percent save percentage for the season, but more importantly, it allowed him to finally ease his curiosity.

“You kind of grow up and you see all these guys playing college lacrosse, and you kind of constantly ask yourself, ‘Can I stop that shot, can I stop that shot? Would I have had that one?’ And now I know.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.