Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 29, 1990 TAG: 9004290167
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The Tar Heels, who lost a regular-season game against the Cavaliers in Chapel Hill, N.C., made it five straight victories at Virginia with a 10-6 win Saturday night in the ACC championship game.
After falling behind 2-1, fourth-ranked Carolina scored seven unanswered goals as seventh-ranked Virginia went more than 29 minutes without scoring.
That was no small feat, considering Virginia (8-4) was scoring more than 15 goals per game and had scored 10 in the first half of its 14-13 victory against the Tar Heels on April 14.
"I think what happens is, when Virginia comes to Chapel Hill or we come up here, the kids know they have to play tougher," said North Carolina coach Willie Scroggs, whose team has lost twice to Virginia at home since its last defeat at Scott Stadium in 1983.
The Tar Heels (10-3) also played smarter, staying away from penalties and scoring five extra-man goals. The Cavaliers committed a total of nine penalties for eight minutes.
"We had late reactions a lot of the time and that caused us to foul," said Jim Adams, UVa's coach. "They just beat us to the ball, and, when you're in that situation, you lose your composure a little bit."
One of the first signs came with 7:37 remaining in the first quarter, when UVa goalie Tom Groeninger became irritated and slashed North Carolina attackman Dennis Goldstein. Out went Groeninger, in came back-up Nick Gannon and Eric Seremet made it 2-2 on the Tar Heels' first extra-man goal.
Virginia won the first 11 faceoffs and 19 of 21 for the game, but never seemed to have the ball. Part of that was the incessant penalties, part was North Carolina's relentless riding and part was UVa's hapless stick-handling.
"I think faceoffs are the most irrelevant statistic in lacrosse," Scroggs said. "On a lot of those faceoffs they won, they were going the other way [toward the UVa goal]."
UVa assistant Mike Caravana retorted: "That's fine for him to say, but when they beat Maryland [in the semifinals Friday night], he said the key was their ability to neutralize Andy Claxton [the Terrapins' faceoff man]."
Scroggs and Adams got into a shouting match after Virginia's third goal, with Scroggs arguing that UVa had seven men on the field and Adams imploring the officials to call a penalty on Scroggs, who was 20 yards out on the field.
"I thought Virginia was very physical and very rough, almost to the point of violence," Scroggs said. "I think there's too much unnecessary roughness in the game of lacrosse."
North Carolina had only two penalties and was able to get off 51 shots on goal to UVa's 32. Sophomore attackman Joe Acee had three goals, three other Tar Heels had two goals each and Goldstein added four assists.
Senior midfielder Chris Wakely had two goals for Virginia, which got its only assist from leading scorer Kevin Pehlke, who broke the UVa freshman scoring record with his 47th point of the season.
North Carolina senior Joe Breschi drew the defensive assignment on Pehlke, as he did in Chapel Hill. Pehlke had one goal and one assist in that game.
"He's been the catalyst for their season," Breschi said. "Ever since we've been in town, every article has been about [Pehlke]. That was incentive, but I didn't do anything different than I did the first game."
Breschi credited junior goalie Andy Piazza, who had 11 saves against the Cavaliers and allowed just 11 goals for the two tournament games.
Groeninger had 14 saves against the Tar Heels or it might have been more of a runaway.
"They came out and shocked us in the first game," Breschi said. "They jolted us. But this was for the championship and we play really serious in championship games."
North Carolina 3 3 3 1-10
Virginia 2 0 2 2-6
Goals scored - North Carolina: Acee 3, Seremet 2, Mayer 2, Huff 2, Webster. Virginia: Wakely 2, Frazer, Schmalz, Appelt, Burt.
Assists - North Carolina: Buczek, Goldstein 4, Donnelly. Virginia: Frazer, Corrigan, Pehlke.
Saves - North Carolina: Piazza 11. Virginia: Groeninger 14.
Shots - North Carolina 51, Virginia 32.
Ground balls - North Carolina 64, Virginia 60.
Faceoffs - Virginia 19, North Carolina 2.
Penalties - Virginia: 9 for 8:00; North Carolina: 2 for 1:00.
by CNB