CARY — The final seconds ticked off of the clock on Friday night at WakeMed Soccer Park when the student section began chanting “Thank you, seniors!”
To date, the four seniors — midfielder Drew Murphy, midfielder David October, forward Zach Wright and forward Alan Winn — had led the Tar Heels to a 57-12-10 record in their four-year careers. Now, the quartet was on its way to a 58th.
No. 3 UNC (14-2-1, 6-1-1 ACC) never seemed in danger of losing the game to No. 16 Notre Dame (9-5-2, 3-3-2 ACC). However, Winn’s goal with 16 minutes remaining put the nail in the coffin of a 3-0 victory.
“It’s very emotional, knowing this is your last year at UNC,” Winn said. “The team here has built a very good culture that I love. It’s more than just a game here. How we played and how we moved the ball today was just awesome and it makes me very emotional.”
Although the night was dedicated to the seniors, the underclassmen were the ones who got the scoring started for North Carolina.
Redshirt sophomore forward Jelani Pieters had his fingerprints all over the game, scoring UNC's first goal in the 34th minute. And in the 73rd minute, he split two Notre Dame defenders and assisted sophomore midfielder Jack Skahan for UNC’s second goal of the night.
“We just go out and try and play our game, try to do our thing and keep it simple," Pieters said. “I think that’s what we did tonight and that’s why it worked so effectively.”
Pieters credited a lot of his growth as a player in the past few years to the seniors showing him the ropes from day one.
“I think from the minute we got on campus, those guys have been leading us,” Pieters said. “I mean, they were sophomores at the time, but at UNC there’s always someone above you and there’s always someone who’s guiding you. Whether it’s grades, school, off the pitch, on the pitch — there’s always people there to guide you. I think they have all been great examples and role models for all of us.”
