PHILADELPHIA — Sophomore Chris Cloutier matched an NCAA tournament single-game record with nine goals as North Carolina built a big lead and held off seventh-seeded Loyola 18-13 Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field, sending the Tar Heels to the title game for the first time since 1993.
The Tar Heels will face Maryland, who defeated Brown 14-14.
UNC (11-6) raced to a 3-0 lead in the first 5:01 of the game. The Greyhounds (14-4) got on the board with 8:22 to go in the first quarter, but the Tar Heels reeled off the next four tallies and extended the margin to 9-2 by the end of Cloutier said.UNC was able to beat the Loyola defense consistently for close-in shots on the crease. Loyola put together a four-goal run in the fourth quarter to narrow the gap to 16-12, but they would get no closer as Cloutier notched his record-tying ninth marker of the day with 5:32 left.
“We were running our offense to a T, and luckily I was just getting open shots that I was able to put in the back of the net,”
Steve Pontrello closed out the scoring with 1:55 remaining for his second goal of the contest to go along with three assists. “They were definitely trying to double the ball all over the field,” Pontrello said of his last goal that effectively put the game away. “I just shot it lefty coming around and wanted to put another one in.”
“We had a lot of moments of indecision,” said Loyola coach Charley Toomey of the Greyhounds’ defensive struggles. “When we did slide, we just didn't take great approaches to the ball. We didn't give our goalies a chance to make saves today.”
The semifinal loss ended the spectacular freshman campaign of Loyola’s Pat Spencer, who had a goal and five assists to finish the season with a single-season school record 89 points.
