
Freshman goalkeeper Kieran Burke made 15 saves and Jimmy Bitter and Joey Sankey recorded hat tricks as #14 North Carolina defeated #1 Maryland 10-8 Saturday afternoon at Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium.
A crowd of 3,053 fans saw the Tar Heels beat Maryland in the regular-season matchup for the fourth straight year to improve to 5-3 on the season and 1-1 in the ACC. The Terps suffered their first loss of the campaign and are now 6-1 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
The Tar Heels bolted to a 9-3 lead in the game midway through the third quarter before weathering a late run by the Terrapins, who scored five of the last six goals of the game. But Burke repeatedly came up big in the cage for Carolina, matching his career high for saves, set previously against Notre Dame. With the Tar Heels holding a four-goal lead heading into the fourth quarter, he was at his best. The Terps outshot Carolina 15-4 in the fourth quarter as the Tar Heels struggled to hold on to the ball, committing seven turnovers in the fourth period. But Burke made six fourth-quarter saves and the Tar Heels earned a much-needed win.
Bitter led the Tar Heels with a five-point game, scoring three times and passing for two assists. Sankey also added a hat trick and Marcus Holman had two goals and two assists. It was the seventh career hat trick for Sankey and the sixth career hat trick for Bitter.
Carolina posted a win over a #1-ranked team for the first time since it beat Johns Hopkins 13-9 on April 1, 2012 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Prior to that win, Carolina had gone 16 years without a win over a #1 team.
Maryland had three different players – Kevin Cooper, Owen Blye and Jake Bernhardt – score two goals apiece in the game.
The Terps finished with a 37-30 edge in shots and a 37-27 margin in ground balls. The Tar Heels had a slight edge at the face-off circle, 11-10. The Tar Heels committed 17 turnovers to only 13 for the Terps. But Burke was the margin with his 15 saves. Niko Amato finished with 11 saves for the Terps as Carolina put 22 of 30 shots on cage. The Tar Heels also excelled in the clearing game, being successful on all 18 tries during the game.
Maryland opened the scoring on an Owen Blye goal 47 seconds into the match. Carolina responded in quick manner, notching the next two scores. Chad Tutton scored on an outside bounce shot, with an assist by Holman, with 11:45 to play in the quarter and, just 57 seconds later, Jimmy Bitter put the Heels up when he converted a fast break off an assist by Greg McBride.