TRIBE 1, UNC 4
The College of William and Mary, which played without three of its top players, committed costly mistakes against no. 7 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (10-2-1, 2-2 ACC) Tuesday night and fell 4-1.
“They have some very good players, but they didn’t really break us down tonight, we made mistakes that cost us goals,” Head Coach Chris Norris said. “This was a golden opportunity for us to play against a very good team, we just didn’t execute well.”
The Tribe (6-4-2, 2-3 CAA) played without junior forward Price Thomas and senior midfielder Doug McBride, who were sidelined due to suspension, and junior forward Andrew Hoxie, who missed his fifth contest of the season due to a leg injury.
“I thought we played a little bit scared in the first half and we tried to address that at half time,” Norris said. “The players stepped up to that challenge and made sure we had a much better second half in terms of our effort and attitude and in our confidence in believing that we could accomplish things against [UNC].”
Redshirt sophomore forward Alan Koger’s second goal of the season came in the 84th minute with the College trailing 3-0.
The Tribe’s only goal of the night materialized in the left corner of the pitch when senior forward Nathan Belcher stole the ball from a UNC defender and sent a low touch pass into the box to Koger, who notched his second goal of the season.
“[Belcher] got to the corner, and they thought he was going to cross the ball towards the goal, so a defender ran right past me,” Koger said. “[Belcher] slid the ball in and I hit it hard and low [for a goal].”
In the opening frame, the Tribe played cautiously and allowed the Tar Heels to maintain possession. With UNC controlling the match, two costly Tribe mistakes led to two first-half goals for the Tar Heels as the visitors outshot the Tribe 7-2 in the opening half. The College also played with only one forward for much of the half because Thomas and Hoxie, who have accounted for over a third of the Tribe’s goals this season, were inactive.
The College’s offense was quite until midway through the second half when it forced the Tar Heels to cleared two balls off the line, and Koger hit the crossbar with a shot late in the match. The Tribe ended with nine second half shots to the Tar Heels’ six.
The College returns to action when it hosts the University of Delaware Saturday night at 7 p.m.