CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The Army West Point men's lacrosse team earned a gritty road win at North Carolina. The win saw Sean Byrne make his first career start between the pipes and he racked up 19 saves.
UNC looked strong early on, racing out to a 6-2 lead. The Black Knights goals came from Reese Burek and Jacob Morin. Down four in the second quarter, Keagan Treacy and Evan Plunkett rattled off back to back goals to cut the deficit in half with 5:56 to play. After a Tar Heel goal brought it to 7-4, Bailey O'Connor forced a turnover and went coast to coast to bring it back to a two goal game going into halftime.
The second half was an electric back and forth affair. Plunkett netted the first two goals of the half to tie things at 7-7 before UNC scored the next two. Morin would get his second of the day just over two minutes later, but UNC responded with one of its own. Will Coletti won the ensuing faceoff and took it all by himself to cut the deficit back to one going into the final frame.
That Coletti goal kicked off a 4-0 Black Knights run. Gunnar Fellows tied it up, then after each team battled for a ground ball for what seemed like an hour, Jackson Eicher came up with it and fed Coletti for his second of the day to give Army its first lead with 13:53 remaining. Fellows scored again two minutes later to make it 12-10.
The Tar Heels would not go away though, they scored the next two goals to tie things up at 12-12 with 5:29 left to play.
After Byrne made a few clutch saves, The Black Knights had exactly what they wanted, the ball and under a minute to go. Reese Burek cut and found Evan Plunkett who fired it home to give Army the lead with a mere 52 seconds left.
Coletti won the faceoff but after a shot on an empty net went wide, UNC got the ball back with 41 seconds to go. Needing a stop, the Black Knight defense shut down any chance the Tar Heels had, not even letting them get a shot off before the final buzzer sounded and Army moved to 8-1.
The Black Knights are now 2-0 against ACC opponents, both coming in one goal wins on the road. The attention now turns to Colgate who comes to West Point on Apr. 6 at 3 p.m.
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