University of North Carolina Athletics
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Ohio St
Tar Heels Remain Perfect With 13-8 Win Over Ohio State
March 18, 2000 | Men's Lacrosse
March 18, 2000
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina's eighth-ranked men's lacrosse team led from start to finish Saturday afternoon as the Tar Heels defeated Ohio State 13-8 before 1,326 fans at sun-drenched Fetzer Field.
Carolina remained perfect on the season at 6-0, the Tar Heels' best start since the 1993 team started the campaign with nine wins in a row. Ohio State, coached by 1990 UNC alumnus Joe Breschi, fell to 1-3 on the season.
North Carolina's senior attack tandem of Chase Martin and Matt Crofton led the Tar Heels to the victory. Martin tallied four goals to match his career high, while Crofton scored once and had a trio of assists. Martin was the goal scorer on each of Crofton's assists. Senior attackman Kevin Mehm added two goals and an assist for the Tar Heels and senior midfielder Jordan Herrick had a pair of assists. Other players with multiple points for UNC were freshmen midfielders Steven Will and Austin Garrison who each had one goal and one assist.
The Buckeyes were led by freshman attackman Pat Meyers who had two goals and one assist. Freshman attackman Mike Norton had one and one for the Buckeyes and Pat Tracy, a sophomore attacker had two assists.
Goals in the first nine minutes by Ryan Damon, Garrison and Martin staked UNC to a 3-0 lead but OSU pulled within a goal at the end of the period on goals by Bryan Mulford and Meyers. The Tar Heels ran off the first three goals of the second quarter with Andy Jonas, Martin and Will scoring to make it 6-2 with 11:50 left in the first half. The Ohio State defense clamped down and kept the Heels scoreless the rest of the half and a goal by Mike Norton with 8:28 left cut UNC's halftime lead to 6-3.
After Crofton and Ohio State's Buddy Lange exchanged goals in the first five minutes of the third quarter, the Tar Heels blew the game open with the final four goals of the third quarter. Crofton fed Martin twice to boost the margin to 9-4 and then goals by Pat Jackson and Mehm in the final minute and a half of the quarter led to an 11-4 Tar Heel advantage.
The Buckeyes came alive against the Tar Heels reserves in the fourth quarter and outscored the Tar Heels 4-2 with four different goal scorers in the final period for OSU. Mehm added his second goal of the game with 5:40 left and sophomore attackman Tim Gosier had the Heels' final tally with 35 seconds left to play.
The Tar Heels will have their hands full in their next outing as 6-0 and #8-ranked UNC visits #6 Duke (3-2) Wednesday night for a 7:30 p.m. game at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C. The two teams split their games last year with UNC ending the Blue Devils' undefeated season with a 10-9 regular season win in Durham. The Blue Devils avenged that loss by beating the Tar Heels 9-7 in the semifinals of the 1999 ACC Tournament in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels lead the all-time series with the Blue Devils, 34-11.
