CHAPEL HILL, NC – Scott Campbell scored with 1:14 remaining in the first overtime to give North Carolina a 1-0 win over UNC Greensboro in men's soccer action Tuesday night.
Campbell, the Tar Heels' leader in points this season with 11, scored to the top right corner after a through ball from Dax McCarty found him 12 yards from the goal in the left side of the box. It was Campbell's fourth-goal of the season.
“The difference tonight was depth,” said UNCG coach Michael Parker. “We didn't have the ability to make many subs and they were pretty liberal with theirs. We lost our legs as the game drug on. We felt like the longer the game went on, the only way we were going to win it was with a set play off a free kick or a corner because we just didn't have much left in our legs. But I am proud of my guys because they left all out on the field tonight and played much better than we did on Saturday.”
The teams played a scoreless half, but neither was without their chances.
The Spartans, ranked as high as No. 17 in the national polls, had two excellent chances just over 10 minutes into the match off a corner kick. Scott Jones put the ball into the box from the corner and Jamie Carlson got a head on it, but it was barely deflected by a Tar Heel defender for another corner kick. On the next chance, Jones' ball into the box was deflected outside, but Jokull Elisabetarson hit a blast from 25 yards out that sailed just over the cross bar.
North Carolina (7-0-1) had a near miss on a corner kick of its own with just under 20 minutes left in the first half. Steven Bickford had a blast from the crowd that reached the goal line before UNCG keeper Jay Benfield covered it up.
The Tar Heels had another chance with 11 minutes remaining before intermission. Adam Sloustcher had a point blank shot from eight yards out and popped it over the top off a rebound of a Benfield save and the game remained scoreless.
After a wide-open first half that saw 17 shots between the teams, the game became more of possession contest in the second half. In the first 25 minutes of the second half, the Tar Heels managed just three shots and the Spartans managed none.
Both teams played without top frontline players. North Carolina's Corey Ashe, the Tar Heels' leading goal scorer, did not play due to personal reasons, while UNCG's Egill Atlason continued to be nagged with a serious of injuries and did not appear in the game. It was only the fourth time Atlason has not appeared in a match during his UNCG career, but the second time already this season.
Ironically, last year it was UNCG that was ranked No. 2 in the country and won at home 1-0. This year, it was North Carolina, the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, coming away with the one-goal win at home.
UNCG (5-3-0) will return home to host Georgia Southern on Saturday at 7 pm to open Southern Conference play.
AGATE
UNCG............... 0 0 0 - 0
North Carolina...... 0 0 1 - 1
SCORING SUMMARY: Campbell (4) (McCarty, Harrington), 98:46. Shots: UNC Greensboro 12, North Carolina 17. Saves: UNC Greensboro 4 (Benfield 4), North Carolina 2 (Williams 2). Corner Kicks: UNC Greensboro 6, North Carolina 6. Fouls: North Carolina 15, UNC Greensboro 14.
- UNCG -
