Sports Monday
Demon Deacon D' Knocks Out Tar Heels
By Evan Markfield
Assistant Sports Editor
In its previous nine meetings with
Wake Forest, the North Carolina foot
ball team averaged more than 36 points,
winning every one of those contests.
Both of those streaks came crashing
to an abrupt halt Saturday as the Demon
Deacons beat
the punchless
Tar Heels
19-3 in front
of 40,000 at
Kenan
Stadium.
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Wake Forest . .19
UNC 3
“They laid it on the line and they
won,” UNC tackle Allen Mogridge said.
“You beat a team for nine straight years,
and they’re going to be frustrated.”
By the time the game was over, the
Deacs had been freed of their frustra
tions, while the North Carolina offense
was only burdened with more.
Wake’s defense, which came into the
game ranked second in the ACC, held
UNC to 131 yards of total offense, the
team’s second-lowest output this season.
The Tar Heels’ only points came off a
Josh McGee field goal in the second
quarter, but calling it a scoring drive
would be grossly overstating the fact.
The series leading to McGee’s 48-yarder
was indicative of UNC’s overall perfor
mance on offense, with the sole excep
tion that they managed to put points on
the board at the end of it.
After starting off at the Wake Forest
38, the Tar Heels “drove” seven yards
on six plays to set up the score. The rest
Peppers Adds Spice to Struggling North Carolina Defense
By Hugh Pressley
Senior Writer
For the past two months the North
Carolina football team has been waiting
for someone on defense to take over the
team’s tackling-utensil role, which, before
a season-ending biceps injury, was held
by senior linebacker Brandon Spoon.
But the Tar Heels didn’t have safety
Billy-Dee Greenwood (who leads the
team with 102 total tackles) in mind.
They thought their new defensive stop
sr would be someone like 6-foot-6,280-
pound defensive end Julius Peppers, a
muscular redshirt freshman who has
even more power than his middle name,
Frazier (ala Joe), suggests.
After eight games of playing more like
Frasier Crane, Peppers finally reached his
Gamecock Goal Run
Dooms Men's Soccer
North Carolina had its
five-game unbeaten streak
snapped thanks to three
second-half goals by USC.
By Matt Terry
Staff Writer
The North Carolina men’s soccer team
was supposed to be celebrating senior
night during its final home game of the
season Saturday night at Fetzer Field.
Unfortunately for the No. 15 Tar
Heels, it wasn’t quite the party that they
had planned. Three second-half goals in
a 14-minute
span spoiled
the festivities
and gave
South Carolina
a 3-2 win, end-
Men’s Soccer
USC 3
UNC 2
ing UNC’s unbeaten streak at five games.
The Tar Heels (11-5-1) seemed more
than happy to hand out party favors to
the Gamecocks (10-6-2). The defense
allowed open chances to USC’s John
Harr, David Testo, and Ryan O’Neill,
each of whom converted.
“No one is happy,” Tar Heel coach
Elmar Bolowich said. “But it is oiu own
fault. We gave them the tools to knock
us over the head.”
A errant pass by UNC midfielder
Michael Bucy led to Harr’s goal in the
52nd minute. Just five minutes later,
Testo was allowed to dance through the
Tar Heel defense for the second
Gamecock goal.
A 1-0 halftime lead for UNC turned
into a 3-1 deficit with 25 minutes left.
The UNC backline was thin with
of UNC’s offensive efforts yielded sim
ilarly dismal results.
The Tar Heels never got the ball
inside the Demon Deacon 30-yard line,
limiting them, for the second consecu
tive week, to just a field goal. UNC has
scored only one touchdown in its last 14
quarters of play.
“It’s inconsistency,” said UNC tight
end Alge Crumpler, who caught five
passes for 57 yards. “Our chemistry has
not been there. We’ve got to be able to
put two and two together in order to get
into the end zone.”
The Deacs sacked UNC quarterback
Luke Huard five times and had pressure
on him for most of the game. Huard
played all but two series and finished 11
of 30 for 101 yards.
When the redshirt freshman wasn’t
facing tremendous heat from the Wake
defensive front - which wasn’t often -
he didn’t help the UNC offense’s cause
by throwing several incompletions
when he had a wide-open receiver.
“It’s another one of those games
where we weren’t able to execute like
we’d like to,” Huard said. “It comes
down to making the key plays on key
downs. When we’re in a situation to
make a play, we’re not exactly making
them.”
Things weren’t much better for the
Tar Heels on the ground. In fact, they
were significantly worse. The UNC
backs had 29 carries for 12 net yards, a
stat that was hurt by the fact that the
Deacs’ five sacks amounted to minus-35
See FOOTBALL, Page 7
x -j
cr/
potential against
Wake Forest on
Saturday. He
sacked WFU quar
terback Ben
Sankey four times,
and more impor
tantly, helped the
Tar Heels hold
Deacons running
back Morgan
Kane (28 carries,
71 yards) in check.
Sure UNC lost
yet again, but the
19 points and 125
rushing yards it
UNC defensive end
Julius Peppers
sacked Wake Forest
quarterback Ben
Sankey four times
in Saturday's game.
gave up were the fewest the team has sur
rendered in a game this season, thanks in
large part to Peppers’ spicy play.
flfpskjjii r ' **
defenders Matt
Laycock and Jon
Wean out with
injuries. Also,
defender David
Popp left the game
in the second half
with a concussion.
“That’s not an
excuse to play like
that,” Bolowich
said. “We were
deep (at defense)
to begin with.”
With 15 min
utes left, senior co
captain Joey
UNC senior
Joey DiSalvo
scored his second
goal of the season in
the Tar Heels' loss
to South Carolina.
DiSalvo scored his second goal of the
season, catching USC keeper Henry
Ring off his line with a 28-yard chip.
W'ith nine minutes left, forwards
Chris Carrieri and Caleb Norkus
orchestrate a nifty give-and-go which
saw Carrieri’s finish smack the face of
the crossbar. Carrieri’s 20-yard despera
tion shot with less than five seconds
remaining trickled wide.
“That basically sums up our season
so far,” DiSalvo said. “We’re getting our
shots, we’re getting a lot of opportuni
ties, but when it comes down to it,
they’re not going in.”
The Tar Heels controlled the pace of
the game from the opening whistle.
Carrieri scored his 12th goal in the 14th
minute, but the team misfired on sever
al chances to increase the lead.
“Avery good team plays poorly and
wins a game like that,” Bolowich said.
“We are not there yet.”
The Sports Editor can be reached at
sports@unc.edu.
BESSsL. 11 it mttm ■ ■ JS wl i
DTH/CARA BRICKMAN
North Carolina tailback Rufus Brown gets stuffed by two Wake defenders in the Deacs’ 19-3 win Saturday.
Brown rushed for 16 yards on 13 carries in the game, and UNC had only 12 net yards on the ground.
“I’m learning,” said Peppers, who had
seven total tackles against Wake. “I think
I’ve learned a lot since the first game.
The first game I really didn’t have much
experience, and I wasn’t really sure I
was supposed to be on the field at the
time. But now I think Pm growing and
learning the defense, and I think I’m
coming along pretty good.”
Peppers, who has a team-leading six
sacks and 10 tackles for loss for the sea
son, kept the Deacs on their heels all
game.
After a first-quarter Sankey sack led
to a Deacons punt, Peppers kept Wake
from scoring again right before the half,
blocking a 56-yard field goal attempt by
Tyler Ashe to keep the score 10-3. With
the game still within reach early in the
fourth quarter, Peppers had two sacks on
By Brian Murphy
Sports Editor
Erica Roberson had never been to a
soccer game before. The seven-year old
began her soccer career just months ear
lier. But Roberson already knew who her
sports hero was.
When North Carolina’s public address
announcer announced Mia Hamm as the
Tar Heels’ assistant
coach, Roberson
turned to her father
and said, “My idol
is on the other
side.”
Her father, Ed,
smiled, and the
Roberson family
watched the Tar
Heels top Clemson
in Friday’s ACC
Tournament semifi
nal.
Following the
game Roberson and
dozens of other
small girls lined the
Mia Hamm
4} A
j yatl heel legends I
fence at Fetzer Field clamoring for Hamm
to autograph their program or shirt or just
shake their hands.
The reception is not unusual for
Hamm, who is recognized as the world’s
best women’s soccer player. It was
Hamm and her U.S. National Team team
mates who captured the hearts of
America -and millions of Erica
Robersons - on their way to capturing
the 1999 Women’s World Cup this sum
mer.
“You go out there and do something
that you love to do, and you invest as
much as we do into it and to see all these
people get excited about what you’re
doing,” Hamm said. “It’s an overwhelm
two consecutive downs to force another
punt - this time on Wake’s own 20 yard
line.
If it weren’t for a roughing-the-kick
er penalty against the Tar Heels, the
team would have had a good chance of
erasing its 13-3 deficit. Instead the Deacs
kept that drive alive and scored three
more points, all but negating Peppers’
individual efforts.
”We’re certainly glad we could get
out of this with a win, particularly with
the problems (Peppers) created for us,”
Wake coach Jim Caldwell said. “He’s
just an outstanding player. He really got
up the field on us and did a tremendous
job.”
What’s scary about Peppers - besides
his Herculean strength, deceptive quick
ness and discombobulating reach - is
Model of Excellence
ing feeling.”
Overwhelming is a good way to
describe Hamm’s performance on the
field. During her career at North
Carolina, Hamm set a since-broken
NCAA record with 103 goals, leading the
nation in scoring three times. Hamm and
the Tar Heels won four national champi
onships.
And since moving to the national
The DTH polled UNC athletics experts
to determine the 10 greatest athletes
in Tar Heel history. Join us every
Monday on the road to No. 1.
college and with the national team.
“There’s a huge pressure in this sport on
goal scorers because it’s such a difficult
thing to do, and that pressure never got to
Mia.”
Hamm has not let the pressure of
being her game’s most celebrated figure
get to her either. She handles the fame,
endorsements and commercials as easy as
she handles opposing defenders.
“I don’t look at those as burdens,”
Hamm said. “I look at those as incredible
opportunities that people want to hear
what you’re all about, want to hear your
story, want to be a part of what you feel
See HAMM, Page 8
that he is only a freshman; he is only
going to get better. What’s intriguing
about him is that, despite his team’s 1-8
slump, he is still having fun.
“I’m going to have fun; that’s what
I’m out there to do,” said Peppers, who
added that he was still not sure whether
he’ll tryout for the basketball team
come season’s end. “When you play
hard you have fun, and good things
happen. It’s kind of hard to have fun
when you lose week in and week out,
but I’m a happy person, so I guess that
helps me. I don’t worry about stuff too
much.”
Maybe the rest of the team should fol
low Peppers’ lead.
The Sports Editor can be reached at
sports@unc.edu.
> *•>'&**
-
:1* n<J J
% ■ -
team, her perfor
mance has been no
less impressive.
Hamm is the all
time leading goal
scorer in interna
tional competition,
men’s or women’s,
with 114 goals.
“She has a won
derful hunger to
score, and scoring in
this game is not
easy,” said UNC
women’s soccer
coach Anson
Dorrance, who
coached Hamm in
COURTESY OF UNC SPORTS INFORMATION
Former North Carolina forward Mia Hamm was named the
collegiate National Player of the Year in 1992 and 1993.
INSIDE:
■ North Carolina
volleyball team drops
match against Duke.
Page 11
■ UNC women's
swimming downs
three ranked
opponents on the
Men’s Hoops
Takes Out
Australians
Behind another solid
performance from
guard Joseph Forte, the
UNC men's basketball
team earned a victory
versus the Down Under
Bandits. See Page 11.
road. Page 8
Tar Heels
Sent Home
By Deacons
Wake Forest's field hockey
team beat North Carolina
for the third consecutive
time this season on Friday.
By Brad Broders
Staff Writer
WINSTON-SALEM - The 1999
Wake Forest curse continued for the
North Carolina field hockey team.
After losing to the No. 5 Demon
Deacons twice in the regular season, the
No. 6 Tar Heels felt confident that their
game plan would help them defeat
Wake in a
first-round
matchup of
the ACC tour
nament at
Kent n e r
j Field Hockey
UNC I
Wake Forest .. .6
Stadium on Friday.
So much for optimism.
Wake upended the Tar Heels 6-1,
scoring four second-half goals en route to
UNC’s most lopsided loss of the season.
The loss left goalie Amy Tran in tears
and her teammates at a loss for words.
“We were ready to go - we thought,”
UNC junior back Erin Cox said. “We
had the game plan; this was supposed to
be the one. I’m just speechless.”
UNC (15-5), hoping not to fall into
an early hole at Wake Forest’s home sta
dium, did exactly that. Wake’s Jennie
Shelton and Jenny Everett both
knocked home goals in the game’s first
27 minutes.
“I think it was important for us to
maybe get a goal early,” UNC coach
Karen Shelton said. “We had wanted to
get an early goal. We hadn't been up on
Wake. We had some penalty' comers
early, and I thought if we were able to
capitalize it would have been different.”
Although Tar Heel midfielder Carrie
Lingo scored off an assist by sweeper
Jana Toepel to cut the margin to 2-1
going into halftime, all hell broke loose
for the Tar Heels in the second half.
The Deacons (17-2) scored two goals
in the first 15 minutes of the second half
to put the game out of reach.
After Wake took a 3-1 lead, Demon
Deacon forward Jennie Shelton broke
away from the North Carolina defense
See FIELD HOCKEY, Page 7
14