Big City Classic

So I just watched the North Carolina-Virginia lacrosse game from the inaugural Big City Classic (Classic in name only, and will thus be known here after as the BCCINO). North Carolina came into this game with plenty of adversity surrounding the program. They had last 19 straight ACC lacrosse contests dating back to an 11-9 victory of the Virginia Cavaliers in April of 2004. Carolina has lost games in every way imaginable during this stretch, they have been blown out, lost in overtime, seemingly not shown up, and even had a game winning goal deflect off of two UNC sticks before taking a bad hop into the goal against Maryland two weeks ago in their last ACC game before the BCCINO. Needless to say UNC and first year Coach/alumnus Joe Breschi are hungry to break that streak. UNC also came into the game down one of their top defensemen in Jack Ryan. UVA was undefeated coming into the game and the unanimous number one team in the country. This game was going to be a struggle for the Heels no matter what, with that kind of setup. In addition to the 500lb gorilla on the back of each UNC player especially the seniors, the team was stranded in the Raleigh Durham Airport from 10:00 A.m. to 10:00P.m. They missed their practice at the meadowlands and did not make it to their hotel until after one Saturday morning. Both teams came into the game off of overtime thrillers, UNC defeated Johns Hopkins in overtime at home on Fetzer Field, UVA had a seven overtime thriller giftwrapped and handed to them against Maryland the previous week after the referees blew an inadvertant whistle stopping a Maryland fast break that resulted in a goal in the first overtime and then even tried to allow UVA to keep their goalie Adam Ghitelman in the game when he clearly committed a foul. Anyway, this game was important to both squads. The game started horribly for UNC. After each team had an offensive possession and got settled in, UVA took possession and Shamel Bratton drove and took a strange looking shot that must have been deflected and sat nicely right in front of the goal where UVA picked it up and fired it home for the first goal of the game. On the next possession within 30 seconds, Billy Glading drove to his right from behind and scored by reaching around his defender. Everyone clad in Carolina blue had a sort of "Oh no, here we go again" look. However, Billy Bitter was able to corral a loose ball in front of the goal and get a garbage goal of his own to keep the Heels within striking distance. The teams traded a few more possessions before Michael Burns, a defensive midfielder for UNC took advantage in transition of the fact that UVA's second midfield consisted of converted attackmen and drove to his right and scored on a nice running high to low jump shot. With the game knotted at two, Billy Bitter took over for UNC. He took Ken Clausen to the woodshed consistently in the first half. It was the same move every time, but Clausen the All-American had no answer whatsoever for the slick sophomore from Vermont. Bitter would use his top end speed to drive to the left side of the goal from behind and once Clausen turned his hips, Bitter planted his left foot and stopped immediately cutting back behind Clausen to the right and squezzing a shot in as he ran to the goal. UVA was very slow to adjust to this. The first two times, there was noslide whatsoever to help Clausen. It became clear that UVA was grossly mistaken in which player had the mismatch between Bitter and Clausen. UVA began to bring a slide, the first slide missed Bitter completely as he sidestepped the defender and was allowed to not only fake and finish on Ghitelman, but even was able to stay on his feet afterward, which must have been frustrating for Ghitelman. The next time, the slide came, but was too late. It seemed as though Ghitelman perhaps should have made the save on this shot as Bitter shot as he was fading away and decreasing his angle, but was still able to find just enough space to squeeze the ball in high over Ghitelman's shoulder. The game took a very dramatic turn in the first half when first North Carolina's stellar freshman defenseman Charlie McComas, their top cover defender, went out with a shoulder injury. This was followed by Grant Zimmerman, UNC's captain and All-American goalie came out of the crease to corrall a loose ball and took an awkward step, which resulted in what one can only guess is a torn ACL. The reply while not on Joe Theismann or Willis McGahee level was stomach turning. Zimmerman was playing extremely well when he went out. He allowed the first two goals, but made a number of key saves following that and limited rebounds. He made some superb outlet passes that created transition opportunities for UNC. North Carolina was able to get a lead of 7-3 in the first half before Zimmerman went out. Zimmerman's replacement, freshman James Petracca, played admirably. He was understanably cold when he first came in and gave up an early goal to Danny Glading, which I am conviced if properly warm, he would have had easily. He made a number of saves that were impressive. The only bone to pick with the game he played was that he did not consistently control the rebound, which resulted in multiple UVA goals, those goals unfortunately decided the game. I am operating under the assumption that Zimmerman's season and career as a Tar Heel are over, which is incredibly sad to see a young man work the way he has and even come back from a previous knee injury to have it all end on a freak play and an awkward step, I hope he is able to come back and feel awful for him. I can't imagine, the emotional pain he must be going through. Now for Petracca, he seems as though he can grow into a high level goalkeeper for the Heels, now that he will get all the reps in practice with the first team defense, I think he will improve at a rapid rate. Also, there is very limited film on Petracca, which may help UNC as teams will not be sure of the best way to attack him. Now, in this game UVA was able to take advantage of a undermanned Tar Heel team winning by a final of 11-10. I do not write this to make excuses for North Carolina, they should have won the game in spite of all of this adversity. They had plenty of opportunities and were unable to finish. They hit the posts a handful of times, any one of those goes in and its a different game and maybe I am not focused on the future of Petracca, but rather the gutty performance on UNC. This team showed a lot of heart and did not seem to be waiting for the other shoe to drop as it unfortunately did. This game should show the promise of the future for this Carolina team. They will be very dangerous come the ACC and NCAA tournaments. I don't think anyone is going to want to play them come May.