CARY — Time expired as Cam Lindley’s desperation boot from 35 yards out sailed over the cross bar.
The sophomore midfielder put his hands on his hips and glanced at the scoreboard in disbelief.
Coming into the ACC tournament quarterfinal, the North Carolina men’s soccer team hadn’t lost since Oct. 6. And, just nine days earlier, the Tar Heels defeated the Fighting Irish, 3-0, in their regular season finale.
But on Sunday, No. 3 North Carolina came up short against its conference rival. The 2-1 loss to No. 21 Notre Dame makes the 2017 season UNC’s fifth consecutive season without winning an ACC tournament game — even though it has won the regular season Coastal Division title in each of the past three seasons.
“I haven’t digested it yet,” senior forward Alan Winn said. “I don’t know what to tell you right now. We got to go back, look at film and see what happened.”
Even though the Tar Heels dominated on the stat sheet — notching five more shots and five more corner kick opportunities than the Fighting Irish — they couldn’t finish off any of their early opportunities.
“We lacked a little bit of energy, and to win these games, you have to have a bit of an edge and we didn’t have it,” head coach Carlos Somoano said. “The margins are very small so, you play with more energy last week, you win 3-0. They play with a little more energy this week, they win the game.”
In the sixth minute, Notre Dame midfielder Blake Townes drew the game’s first blood when he headed in an uncontested cross that floated into eight-yard box. The game didn’t see another goal until late in the second half, when Notre Dame’s Jeff Farina volleyed a ball out of the air into the Tar Heels’ 18 yard-box, and Jon Gallagher was there to finish it off with his head.
“You give up a goal minutes into the game on a throw-in, a set piece,” Somoano said. “That’s a bad way to start the game, and we didn’t really come back into the game collectively. We tried to solve everything individually.”
