North Carolina
Maryland
Tar Heels Down Terps In OT For NCAA Title, 14-13
May 30, 2016 | Men's Lacrosse
PHILADELPHIA, PA. – Sophomore attackman Chris Cloutier scored with 1:39 left in the first overtime period off an assist from junior midfielder Michael Tagliaferri to give the University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team a 14-13 win over top-ranked Maryland in the NCAA championship game at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday afternoon.
The Tar Heels captured their first national championship since 1991 in a game that featured several lead changes and had numerous dramatic twists and turns. A crowd of 26,749 fans saw the Tar Heels finish 12-6 on the season while Maryland's 16-game winning streak was ended and the Terrapins finished the campaign 17-3.
Tar Heel sophomore goalkeeper Brian Balkam made a big overtime save while the unseeded Tar Heels were playing a man down shortly before Cloutier's game-winner, allowing Carolina to survive a point-blank Terrapin shot attempt that would have won the first NCAA title in over four decades for top-seeded Maryland.
UNC captured its fifth NCAA title, joining the teams from 1981, 1982, 1986 and 1991. The Tar Heels are now 5-1 in NCAA championship games in their history.
Carolina is the first school to win the men's and women's lacrosse NCAA championships in the same year since Princeton did so in 1994. The UNC women's team beat Maryland, 13-7, in Sunday's national title game in Chester, Pa.
Cloutier finished with five goals on seven shots for the Tar Heels. Luke Goldstock scored four goals and Steve Pontrello had two goals and one assist. Brian Cannon scored twice and Patrick Kelly had a goal and two assists. Tagliaferri, William McBride, Shane Simpson and Timmy Kelly had assists for the Tar Heels.
Connor Kelly led the Terrapins with four goals, while Matt Rambo had three goals and three assists and Henry West had two goals and four assists. Colin Heacock had two goals and two assists for the Terps while Dylan Maltz had two goals and an assist.
The stat sheet favored Maryland in almost every area except the save total. UNC's Brian Balkam made 13 saves, one short of his career high of 14 set earlier this year against Virginia and against Notre Dame in the NCAA quarterfinals. Maryland's Kyle Bernlohr, the second-team All-America selection, made nine saves while allowing 14 goals.
Maryland, which beat Carolina 11-8 in the regular-season meeting in College Park, Md., on March 26, outshot the Tar Heels 38-32. The Terps had an edge of 35-24 in ground balls and Maryland's Austin Henningsen won 19 of 30 face-offs against UNC's Stephen Kelly (8-23) and Charles Kelly (3-7).
Given the pace of play, the game featured only 17 turnovers (10 by Carolina and 7 by Maryland). Five of UNC's 10 turnovers came in the clearing game (10 for 15) while Maryland was successful 13 times in 14 attempts. UNC went two-for-two on extra-man opportunities, scoring its 12th and 14th goals in the process. Maryland was 3-for-5 in extra-man situations.
Cloutier was named the Championship's Most Outstanding Player. He had 19 goals and three assists in four tournament games (2-0 vs. Marquette, 3-3 vs. Notre Dame, 9-0 vs. Loyola, 5-0 vs. Maryland). Cloutier's 19 goals broke the NCAA Tournament record for goals in a tournament which was previously held by Loyola's Eric Lusby, who had 17 goals in the Greyhounds' run to the 2012 NCAA championship. Cloutier's 23 points in the 2016 tournament were two short of the record of 25 set by Cornell's Eamon McEaneaney in 1977 and the Big Red's Tim Goldstein in 1987.
Other players on the All-Tournament Team included attackman Steve Pontrello, attackman Luke Goldstock and defenseman Austin Pifani from North Carolina; attackman Matt Rambo, midfielder Connor Kelly, midfielder Henry West and midfielder Isaiah Davis-Allen from Maryland; attackman Pat Spencer from Loyola and goalkeeper Jack Kelly from Brown.
North Carolina became the first unseeded team in the history of the tournament to claim the championship. The six losses by Carolina in 2016 were the most by any team that went on to claim the national title. UNC beat four seeded teams en route to winning the crown. The Tar Heels beat #6 seed Marquette in the opening round 10-9 in Milwaukee before they dispatched #3 Notre Dame 13-9 in the quarterfinals in Columbus, Ohio. On championship weekend in Philadelphia, the Tar Heels beat #7 Loyola 18-13 in the semifinals and #1 Maryland 14-13 in overtime in the championship game.
Just like it had against Loyola in the semifinals, the Tar Heels came out on fire in the first quarter. UNC scored the opening four goals of the game in just 4:10 of action. Goldstock scored on a dodge from goal line extended to get the Tar Heels on the board 1:07 into play. Fifty-three seconds later, Brian Cannon scored off an assist by Timmy Kelly to make it 2-0. Cloutier scored the first of his five goals at the 12:05 mark after a Maryland turnover and that was followed by Cannon's second goal of the period, assisted by Pontrello, at 10:50 to make it 4-0.
It took the Terps just over five minutes to tie the game. Dylan Maltz's second goal of the quarter equalized the match at 4-4 with 5:06 left in the period. An unassisted goal by Pontrello at 2:15 and Goldstock's second goal of the quarter, assisted by William McBride, at 1:03 gave the Tar Heels a 6-4 lead before Connor Kelly tallied the first of his four goals in the game with 12 seconds left in the quarter.
The Terps went on to outscore the Tar Heels 3-1 in the second quarter to take an 8-7 lead into intermission. Goldstock opened the scoring in the second quarter, assisted by Patrick Kelly, giving the Tar Heels a 7-5 lead with 9:59 before the teams went to the locker room. But goals by West and Kelly tied the game and Matt Rambo's man-up goal with 3:28 left gave Maryland an 8-7 lead.
UNC had been 0-5 when trailing at halftime in 2016 prior to Monday's game and Maryland had won 64 of its last 68 games when leading at halftime but those trends did not hold on Monday.
With 10:05 left in the third quarter, Rambo scored off an assist by Heacock to give the Terrapins their first two-goal lead of the game. But Cloutier was there at the ready to rally the Tar Heels again. At the eight-minute mark, he scored on a rebound after Bernlohr had saved a shot by Pontrello. Carolina's Charles Kelly won the ensuing face-off and Shane Simpson fed his fellow Canadian Cloutier for the tying score just 33 seconds later, making it 9-9. Balkam then forced a turnover on the next Maryland possession leading to Cloutier's go-ahead goal at 5:12. Connor Kelly's goal with 3:11 left in the third period again tied the game at 10-10 heading into the final quarter.
A man-up goal by Heacock, assisted by West, gave the Terps the lead again at 11-10 exactly two minutes into the final period. Pontrello then scored his 49th goal of the season while the Tar Heels were in a shot clock warning situation and the game was tied again at 11-11 with 10:21 left in the game.
Just 59 seconds later Maryland retook the lead on a goal by Heacock. Kelly followed that up with his fourth goal of the game, assisted by Rambo. The goal came with 7:49 left in the match and gave the Terrapins a 13-11 lead.
After a timeout by Carolina, the Tar Heels won the ensuing face-off but Patrick Kelly turned the ball over with 6:27 to play. Maryland's Kelly had a shot to make it a three-goal Terrapin lead with 4:59 to play but Balkam made the save and the Tar Heels' successfully cleared. Maryland's Henry West was assessed a slashing penalty on the ride, giving the Tar Heels a one-minute man-up chance with 4:10 remaining. Just 17 seconds into the extra-man chance, Patrick Kelly found Luke Goldstock open in the middle of the field and the junior attackman scored from 10 yards out to cut Maryland's lead to 13-12 with 3:53 to play. Stephen Kelly won the face-off following the Goldstock goal and Patrick Kelly drove the left alley and scored on a low shot past Bernlohr to tie the game at 13-13 with 3:22 to play.
That led to a wild last 3:22 of play that included four turnovers (two by each team). Maryland had two incredible chances to score in the final flurry of end-to-end action. With 1:33 left a shot by Heacock hit the cross bar. Then with four seconds to play, Balkam made a save on a point-blank shot by Rambo.
In a dead ball situation with 3.9 seconds to play, Carolina's Goldstock was called for a one-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Terps held the ball at the end of regulation, negating the face-off at the start of overtime. Thirty-four seconds into the extra period, Balkam saved a shot by Kelly from the left wing 10 yards out. The Tar Heels successfully cleared and the Heels took a timeout with 3:06 left in overtime. With 2:15 to play, the Terps' Bernlohr made an acrobatic save on a shot by Cloutier. The ball was blown dead after Cloutier went into the crease but the Terps were flagged in the process, giving the Tar Heels an EMO. Mike McCarney was assessed a one-minute cross checking foul at 2:11 after hitting Goldstock after the play was over.
Bernlohr saved a shot by Goldstock eight seconds into the extra-man opportunity but Pontrello had the back up, keeping the ball in the hands of the Tar Heels. UNC worked the ball around for the next 24 seconds before Cloutier took a pass from Tagliaferri and buried a shot from 10 yards into the lower left corner of the goal. Cloutier's 43rd goal of the season proved to be the national championship game winner setting off an on-field celebration by the side in Carolina Blue that will be talked about long into the future.
