The Tar HeelThursday, June1 , .1.9891-3.
Sports ,'
Lax loses on Final Four to Blue Jays
Hopkins' defense
shuts down Tar
Heels in 2nd half
By JOHN BLAND
Assistant Editor
For one-half of the NCAA semifi
nal game Saturday afternoon at Byrd
Stadium in College Park, Md., the
UNC lacrosse team looked like it was
going to go to the NCAA champion
ship game for the fourth time in the
1980s.
Unfortunately for the Tar Heels,
their opponents, the Johns Hopkins
Blue Jays, had a different opinion on
the matter. Playing one of the best
defensive games of the season, the
Blue Jays clamped down and effec
tively held the Tar Heels to one second-half
goal en route to a 10-6 vic
tory. The loss ended UNC's season with
a 13-5 record.
At first it seemed as if the Tar
Heels would achieve the revenge it
was seeking after suffering a regular-season
loss to Hopkins, 16-10, at
Kenan Stadium.
UNC started out strong and quick,
winning the first face-off on a JHU
procedure penalty. Thirty-five sec
onds later sophomore attackman
Dennis Goldstein worked an inside
roll against the Blue Jays normally
watertight crease defense for the first
goal of the game.
A minute and 15 seconds later
senior attackman Neill Redfern upped
the Tar Heel lead to two off of a
Steve Huff assist
UNC's defense dominated early
in the first quarter, but JHU got on
the board at the 10:42 mark on a
long, rifling shot by Brian Lukacz.
Goldstein then worked his way in
side, again off the left post, and scored
on a bounce shot from point-blank
range to give the Tar Heels a 3-1
lead.
Johns Hopkins closed the gap and
at the end of the first quarter the Tar
Heels had a tenuous 3-2 lead.
The style of play that has unfortu
nately characterized UNC's squad this
year reared it's ugly head in the sec
ond quarter. While the Tar Heels had
been playing nearly flawless lacrosse
in the first quarter, in the second they
began to get sloppy.
Johns Hopkins tightened its pres
sure defense and began to play a
smothering man-to-man game that
knocked the Tar Heels off-stride. Add
that to several dropped and errant
passes and a lack of communication
and the picture for the Tar Heels
wasn't getting any brighter. This was
most evident when UNC's senior
goalie Pat Olmert took the ball past
mid-field without having any help
stay behind (to keep four men on the
defensive half of the field), thus giv
ing the ball to the Blue Jays on the
ensuing offsides call.
Olmert must have also raised Tar
Heel head coach Willie Scroggs'
blood pressure a couple of points by
playing outside the crease. On a situ
ation in which UNC defenseman Joe
Breschi was out on a penalty and the
Tar Heels were a man down, JHU
attackman Jeff Ihm stole the ball from
Olmert on an ambush of the goalie
and scored on the undefended goal.
That goal gave the Blue Jays a 4
3 lead. But at 3:38, Dennis Goldstein
fed the ball to Chip Mayer, on the
restraining line, and the junior mid
die, possessor of the most powerful
shot on the UNC squad, cranked up
and fired. The goal tied the game.
A little less than two minutes later,
it was Mayer who fed to Goldstein to
give the Tar Heels a 5-4 halftime
lead.
If anything, the Tar Heels were
saved by the offensive flatness of
Johns Hopkins in the first half. Nei
ther team seemed able to break the
other's tough defense.
In the first meeting between these
two teams, April 8 in Chapel Hill,
the score was tied 5-5 at halftime.
The Blue Jays then exploded for seven
third-quarter goals while holding the
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UNC's Neill Redfern (14) tries to get past JHU's Dave Pietramala (43)
Tar HeelSarah Cagla"
Tar Heels to only one.
Lately, however, the third quarter
had been the domain of the Tar Heels.
Against Towson State in the first
round and Loyola in the quarterfi
nals, UNC had tightened up defen
sively and opened up offensively. This
day, however, would be a near-repeat
of the April 8 meeting.
"We tightened up our defense in
the second half," said Hopkins head
coach Don Zimmerman, a former
assistant at UNC.
Added All-American defenseman
Dave Pietramala: "We adjusted our
slides from the crease at halftime to
shut down their offense."
"Shut down" indeed. In the fate
ful third quarter the Tar Heels got no
goals on seven shots. Dennis Gold
stein, who had been using his inside
rolls to near-perfection in the first
half, was cut off from the left post
(and the right post and everywhere
else) by the shifting Hopkins defense.
At 10:21 of the quarter, Hopkins'
attackman Matt Panetta, on a fast
break feed from attackman John
Dressel, faked out Olmert and tied
the score at five. After five minutes
of intense defensive play by both
teams, the Blue Jays scored again on
a Greg Kelly solo shot.
Redfern tried to tie the score at
six on a last-second shot from the
restraining line that went right into
JHU goalie Quint Kessenich's stick.
The fourth quarter presented two
different teams.
"We got stronger and stronger as
the game wore on," Zimmerman saidp
"Those fourth-quarter legs are really
great to have." f
Scroggs, the Bob Knight of col4
lege lacrosse, painted a different pic-s
ture of his team: "In the second half,?
we started to get unglued a little bit
and didn't play our solid defense."
The Tar Heels seemed to get des
perate at times, and this was evident
in the four and a half penalty minutes
attributed to them. In contrast, JHU
was awarded only one penalty in the
entire game, a one minute slash call
on Pietramala in the second quarter.
But in the fourth quarter it seemed
like a convention of lumberjacks with
all the hacking going on, on both
See LACROSSE, page 15
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