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Heels stun Deacs
Wake Forest quest for a repeat crown ends with 1-0 loss
AP Photo
Evan Brown (18) of Wake Forest and Billy Schuler of North Carolina battle for possesion.
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Published: December 13, 2008
FRISCO, Texas - Wake Forest's bid to repeat as national champions in men's soccer came to a screeching halt last night.
North Carolina, an underdog that was seeded No. 13, answered every challenge that the high-scoring and top-seeded Deacons had and came away with a 1-0 win in a semifinal of the College Cup at Pizza Hut Park.
As three of the Wake Forest players -- Marcus Tracy, Sam Cronin and Corben Bone -- tried to explain how a team that scored 81 goals couldn't get one more, Coach Jay Vidovich summed it up best.
"For sure there's a credit to North Carolina, but there's more of a factor that we just didn't play," Vidovich said. "Whether it was anxiety or what have you or the pressure was on, we didn't play. We wasted too much time and that was it. You can't give up 45 minutes like that to a quality team."
The Deacons (21-2-1) sleep-walked through the first half and the Tar Heels came out as if they had nothing to lose. Just four minutes in, Brian Shriver, UNC's leading scorer, headed a perfect cross from Zach Loyd past goalie Akira Fitzgerald.
It was the first goal the Deacons had allowed in the NCAA Tournament, and it proved to be a big one.
The Tar Heels (15-7-1) made the goal stand up and will play for the NCAA title on Sunday against Maryland, which defeated St John's 1-0 in two overtimes.
Coach Elmar Bolowich of the Tar Heels, whose team had lost 4-2 to the Deacons in the regular season, had a plan to press at every opportunity and force the high-scoring Deacons out of their game. And it worked, thanks to the outstanding play of goalie Brooks Haggerty.
"When you press you have to press with 10 guys," Bolowich said. "When you don't that's when you open yourself (up) for punishment. We wanted to make sure we kept the lines together for 90 minutes."
In the second half the Deacons peppered Haggerty at every turn. For the game the Deacons had 20 shots, but Haggerty made seven big saves, and also got help from the crossbar.
Tracy had one of the numerous chances for the Deacons in the second half but he hit the crossbar on a header from 7 yards out in the 87th minute. Haggerty also made a key save on another Tracy shot when he deflected it just over the crossbar.
"The end was probably the most nerve-wrecking," Haggerty said. "They are a pretty tall team and when they cross the ball they try to score every time, but when I made the save on Marcus' shot and dove to the left and tipped it over the goal I just knew our team was going to get it done."
The Deacons had steamrolled through their last two NCAA Tournament games winning 7-0 and 5-0, and had the knowledge that despite being down 1-0 to the Tar Heels in the regular season they came back to win 4-2.
All of that didn't matter to the determined Tar Heels, who have come out of nowhere since losing their final five regular-season matches.
"No, we knew coming into this game we were capable of beating them," Shriver said of being the underdogs of the College Cup.
"And we played well for 60 minutes the first time we played them. We spent the past week preparing a total game and play a whole 90 minutes."
One of the things the Deacons have made look easy through most of the season was their pinpoint passing and getting behind a defense.
The Tar Heels bottled the Deacons up at midfield most of the night, and their transition offense never got into a flow.
"They put pressure on the midfield and we couldn't really find our rhythm and get the ball to Marcus and get the ball moving forward," Bone said.
"I think that's one of the things North Carolina did well that once we did get the ball to Marcus, they had three or four guys around him so he couldn't do much with it."
Despite the Tar Heels' smothering defense, Vidovich said he was proud of how the Deacons managed to create some scoring chances in the second half. During one sequence Zack Schilawski had two point-blank shots on Haggerty and he turned both shots aside.
"I feel like I had a lot of chances, but they got away," Schilawski said with tears in his eyes outside of the team's locker room. "We put it on them in the second half, but couldn't score. That's the way it goes sometimes in this game."
Shriver, who scored his first goal since Oct. 25, said he didn't sense that the Deacons were overconfident.
"I think they are a genuine bunch of guys," Shriver said. "They came in and wanted it just as bad as we did, but we were the better team today. We played a complete game and that's why we are playing on Sunday."
■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or at jdell@wsjournal.com.
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