Nov. 16, 2008

By Sergio Tovar

Sometimes reserve players step forward when they're most needed and that has been the case for the Tar Heels in the past few games.

After losing Meghan Klingenberg and Nikki Washington for the NCAA Tournament to the national team that will play at the U20 Women's World Cup in Chile, some of the reserves have picked up their play to fill in the minutes left open by their teammates' departure.

Against the Charlotte 49ers the Tar Heel reserves played well again; so well that coach Anson Dorrance complimented the play of his reserves for the second game in a row.

"I'm always afraid to compliment the reserves--or anyone for that matter--because I have this feeling that if they feel satisfied their performance will go down, but that didn't happen today," he said. "I thought the reserves played just as well today as they did on Friday."

Dorrance said Mandy Moraca, Brittani Bartok, Leslie Briggs, Emmalie Pfankuch and Rachel Wood have been outstanding in Klingenberg and Washington's absence.

Although the starters dominated most of the first half and played the majority of the time in 49ers territory, they missed a couple of opportunities to score the goal. It took a freshman reserve player to break the deadlock and score Carolina's first goal.

Wood's goal, a six-yard strike off a rebound, proved to be the game winner for the Tar Heels. But the goal was also of more significance to the Laguna Niguel, Calif., native because it was her first in a Tar Heels uniform.

During the first half, the reserves had the same amount of shot on goals than the starters did.

At the end of the game, Bartok had four shots while Briggs and Pfankuch had a shot on goal each.

But the play of freshman Courtney Jones was probably the biggest factor in Carolina's win against the 49ers.

Jones took on a couple of defenders starting at midfield to score Carolina's second goal of the match in the early minutes of the second half, which provided the separation the Tar Heels needed.

"Their defense pretty much opened up the entire halfway for me--didn't really close down--so I just kept going and once I saw that last defender I decided to take them one-on-one," she said.

Jones's second goal of the match--and her 12th of the season--came less than four minutes later when she scored on a header off an Ali Hawkins free kick.

But Jones was aggressive the entire game.

About 12 minutes into the first half she had a fast break and the only person to beat was Charlotte's goalie Lauren Brown, who came out fast enough to steal the ball from Jones's feet. Another 20 minutes later, Jones was at it again. This time she had her back to a defender, but she was fast enough to fake the Charlotte player out and to take another shot.

Jones finished with four shots, including three on goal in her 49 minutes of play. Jones said she plays physically because that's the style of play she likes to play.

"That's how I've grown up playing. I've always been used to playing physical, using your body. I'm not much of a technical player so I have to use what I have, strength, using my upper body, speed, going straight at a person--that's what's I'm used to," she said.

"I'm going to take advantage of it--if I can beat a defender like that I'm always going to."

Dorrance said Jones likes to play aggressively for another reason.

"I think also watching her dad play inspired her," he said.

And who is Jones's dad, you must ask? He is four-time Pro Bowler and three-time Super Bowl champion Brent Jones, who played tight end for the San Francisco 49ers from 1987 to 1997.