March 3, 2001

Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, MD. - It's a good bet that the U.S. Naval Academy men's lacrosse team must be thrilled that North Carolina attackman Jeff Sonke is finally a senior.

For the second straight year the Birmingam, Mich. native scored a dramatic goal to lift the Tar Heels to an 11-10 victory over the Midshipmen. Last year Sonke scored in sudden victory overtime at Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill to give the Heels the win 11-10. Saturday afternoon his 40-foot bounce shot with one second remaining found the back of the Navy net at Rip Miller Field in Annapolis to lift the 18th-ranked Tar Heels to yet another 11-10 victory over the 13th-rated Midshipmen.

Sonke's heroics, which capped a day in which he scored three goals and added three assists, also assured Carolina of its first victory outside of the city limits of Chapel Hill since April 14, 1999 when UNC upset an undefeated and second ranked Duke team 10-9 in Durahm, N.C. It was Carolina's first win outside of the state of North Carolina since March 14, 1999 when the Tar Heels defeated the University of Denver 7-4 in Denver, Colo. Carolina had lost seven successive games on the road since the win at Duke in '99 until today's cleansing act in Annapolis.

In improving to 9-6 all-time against the Midshipmen, the Tar Heels got not only a big game from Sonke but also two goals from fifth-year senior attackman Judd Lattimore, three goals from junior midfielder Pat Jackson and two goals from junior midfielder Tim Gosier. Lattimore scored his first goals since 1998. He had been sidelined the entirety of the 1999 and 2000 seasons with major injury problems. Both Gosier (five) and Jackson (three) have already equaled or surpassed their goal totals for the whole of the 2000 season after their performances in this game, the Tar Heels' third contest of the season.

Carolina's win also exorcised some of the demons brought on by a 9-4 loss at the hands of Bucknell last Saturday as the Tar Heels improved to 2-1 on the season. Navy fell to 0-2 and both losses have been heartbreakers. The Middies fell last Saturday at home to UMBC 9-8 in overtime.

Navy got on the board first on a goal by freshman attackman Dave Pittard before goals by Jackson, assisted by Kyle Bell, and Gosier, assisted by Sonke, just 25 seconds apart staked the Tar Heels to a 2-1 lead. Senior attackman Michael Cataffo tied the score at 2-2 for the Mids before Gosier scored his second goal of the game off the first of two assists by UNC sophomore midfielder Austin Garrison to give the Heels a 3-2 edge at the end of the first quarter.

UNC twice stretched the lead in the second quarter to a pair of goals but Cataffo scored back-to-back goals later in the period to tie the game at intermission 5-5. UNC's Steven Will scored off an assist by Lance Zimmerman to make the score 4-2 Carolina before Adam Borcz answered for the USNA over four minutes later. Lattimore scored his first goal off an assist by Joel Miller 7:21 before halftime before Cataffo scored the back to back goals.

Jackson returned the favor for Carolina as he scored successive goals early in the third quarter, both assisted by Sonke, to put the Tar Heels ahead 7-5. But Navy struck back with a pair of scores of their own as senior midfielder Adam Borcz's goal with 43 seconds left ended the third quarter tied again at 7-7.

That set the stage for an amazing fourth quarter by National Player of the Year candidate Sonke. He scored his first goal of the game with 13:01 left to give the Tar Heels the lead again. Lattimore followed with his second goal of the game, assisted by Garrison, with 9:35 to play on Carolina's only extra-man situation of the day to make it 9-7 Tar Heels. That two-goal lead was short-lived, however, as Cataffo scored his second goal of the game just 14 seconds later.

Sonke took a feed from UNC freshman attackman Andrew Lucas to restore the lead to two goals with 8:03 left in the fourth quarter. The game stayed that way until a wild final two minutes. Senior attackman Brendan Power scored for the Middies to cut Carolina's lead to 10-9 with 1:33 to play. At the same time Carolina's Joel Miller was flagged for slashing giving the Naval Academy the goal and a one-minute, one-man advantage. Fifty-four seconds later the Mids tied the score on Pittard's second goal of the game with 39 seconds to play.

Carolina senior midfielder Mac Hammer, who won eight of 14 faceoffs, won the ensuing faceoff for Carolina against Navy's Chris Dingman and the Tar Heels looked for the game winner. That came off the stick of Sonke, who took a pass from Zimmerman, the freshman middie's second assist of the game, to beat Navy goalie Craig Patterson with one second to play.

The game was a coaching matchup between a pair of UNC graduates. Tar Heel head coach John Haus, '83, is in his first year as the head coach at UNC. Richie Meade, '76, who has had two tours of duties as an assistant at Carolina, is in his sixth year as head coach at Navy.

The Tar Heels (2-1, ACC 0-0) will return to action again next Saturday when they play at Delaware at 7:30 p.m. The Midshipmen (0-2, ECAC 0-1) will play next Saturday at Massachusetts at 1 p.m.