PHILADELPHIA, PA. — Eighth-ranked North Carolina’s first visit to Franklin Field to play Pennsylvania since May 11, 1991 proved to be an unpleasant one as the unranked Quakers earned their first victory of the season, downing the Tar Heels 10-6 in men’s lacrosse action Tuesday night before a crowd of 562.
The Tar Heels, who fell at home last Saturday to Lehigh, have now lost two in a row. UNC is 4-2 overall heading into a matchup Saturday against 14th-ranked Princeton in the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium inBaltimore, Md. Game time is 11 a.m. Penn, which had lost so far to Duke and Lehigh, improved to 1-2 on the campaign.
Dan Savage led the Quakers with three goals and an assist while John Conneely had two goals and two assists and Ryan Parietti and TimSchawlje each had a goal and an assist. Anthony Adler had a goal and two assists for the Quakers who got 17 of their 18 points from five players.
Jimmy Bitter and Marcus Holman each had two goals for Carolina while Jimmy Dunster and Duncan Hutchins had the other goals for the Heels.
Penn outshot the Tar Heels 31-25 although UNC held a 26-20 edge in ground balls. Only 26 of the 56 combined shots in the game were on goal. Brian Feeney made four saves for Penn while Steven Rastivo made six for Carolina.
Carolina was man-up only once in the match while Penn coaxed five EMO’s out of the Tar Heels and capitalized twice, with both man-up goals coming off the stick of Savage.
After UNC took a 2-1 lead on an unassisted goal by Jimmy Bitter with 13:41 left in the second quarter, Savage tied the game on a man-up goal a little over two minutes later. Penn took the lead for good on a goal by Ryan Parietti, assisted by Adler with 8:15 left before halftime.
Penn twice stretched its lead to three goals in the third quarter but goals by Marcus Holman with two seconds remaining in the period and by Jimmy Bitter 1:06 into the fourth quarter got the Tar Heels back within a single goal.
But Penn pulled away again, getting back-to-back goals by Savage and an unassisted goal by Connelly with 4:47 to play to gain its biggest margin of the night at 9-5.
UNC held a slight edge in the face-off circle, winning 10 of 19 and was a perfect 15 for 15 in the clearing game. But 17 turnovers hurt UNC’s cause.
UNC still leads the all-time series against the Quakers 8-5. All four of UNC’s previous losses to the Quakers had come in Chapel Hill. This marked the first win ever for Penn over UNC at Franklin Field.