Lehigh University
No. 3 North Carolina
Mountain Hawks fall to strong UNC squad
2/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
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BALTIMORE, Md. – Lehigh had its hands full with the No. 3 North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday afternoon at St. Paul’s School in Maryland as the Mountain Hawks fell by a score of 14-6. Brian Bienemann netted a hat trick for the Brown and White, while Adam Johnston, Matt Diehl and Dan Honeywell each scored once. Bart Wagner and Sean Delaney led the Tar Heels with four goals apiece. With the loss Lehigh falls to 0-3 on the season while UNC remains unbeaten at 5-0.
“North Carolina is an impressive team,” Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese said afterwards. “They are much improved from a year ago. But we did have several bright spots on the day. I thought we received strong goalie play by Conor Murphy and after challenging the guys at halftime we responded with a great effort and won the third quarter which was a goal for us.”
Lehigh was outshot 56-24 for the game, but went two-for-four in man-up opportunities and forced 20 North Carolina turnovers. The Mountain Hawks scooped up 28 ground balls, led by Chris Rhodes with five and Evan Guerrero with four. Honeywell and Guerrero combined for seven caused turnovers, while Murphy stopped 11 Tar Heel shots as he went the distance in goal for the Brown and White. In the face-off X, Will Scudder won six-of-11 to go along with three ground balls.
For North Carolina, Shane Walterhoefe won 14-of-23 in the X and scooped up a game-high ten ground balls, while Mark Staines and Ryan Flanagan finished with three caused turnovers apiece. Grant Zimmerman got the start in goal for UNC and finished with seven saves before giving way to James Petracca who saw three minutes of action.
North Carolina jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one quarter of play, but Bienemann got Lehigh on the board soon after the second quarter began. Honeywell and Bienemann netted back-to-back scores in a matter of 2:16 which pulled the Mountain Hawks to within two goals at 5-3. From there however the Tar Heels unleashed a 4-0 run to take a 9-3 lead into halftime.
After Cassese challenged the Mountain Hawks to win the third quarter, Lehigh responded and did just that, outscoring the nation’s No. 3 team 2-1 over the next 15 minutes. Johnston took a pass from Bienemann and made the score 9-4, while Diehl closed the gap to 10-5 with 5:07 remaining on the quarter clock.
Bienemann completed his hat trick with a goal at the 11:39 mark of the final quarter, but it proved to be Lehigh’s final score of the afternoon, as UNC netted the game’s final three scores.
Lehigh returns to action on Tuesday afternoon when the Mountain Hawks continue their road swing with a trip to New York to take on the Stony Brook Seawolves. The opening face-off is set for 4:00.
