The North Carolina men's soccer team (2-0-0, 0-0 ACC) defeated South Florida (0-1-1, 0-0 AAC), 1-0, in a Sunday evening bout at Dorrance Field.
What happened?
Seven minutes into the match, UNC midfielder Ahmad Al-Qaq took a shot at the top of the goal that was saved by USF goalkeeper Jackson Weyman. Just a couple minutes after that, Sebastian Schacht, a graduate transfer from St. Mary's, missed a shot wide right.
The game swung UNC's way at the 13 minute mark, when Milo Garvanian was tripped up just inside the box by a South Florida defender and was awarded a penalty kick. The graduate midfielder made Weyman jump left and easily placed the ball into the right side of the goal for the first score of the night.
It was a controversial call, as replays showed that the initial contact with Garvanian appeared to have occurred outside the penalty box.
Immediately after the penalty kick, Bulls forward Alfred Perez exited the game with injury, dealing another blow to USF.
Thirty minutes in, USF forward Jeffery Copper took the Bulls' first shot of the game. Receiving a cross pass center of goal, Copper jumped up to boot the ball into the net but was met by UNC goalkeeper Andrew Cordes, who came out of the goal to stop the play.
After the save, UNC forward Key White drew a penalty for a free kick wide right of the goal. In the ensuing play, White took a shot at the goal but punted the ball high over the crossbar. A little after that, UNC forward Cameron Fisher unloaded from the penalty arc but Weyman saved the shot on goal.
The teams continued to trade shots for the remainder of the half, but none resulted in any more scoring. Towards the end of the half, UNC junior defender Riley Thomas made an impressive tackle from behind to prevent USF's Jemone Barclay, who had nobody in front of him but the goalkeeper, from scoring.