William Perry's goal from a near impossible angle with 6.8 seconds to play lifted the 10th-ranked University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team past St. John's 9-8 Saturday morning at Kenan Stadium. In the process, the Tar Heels rewarded head coach Joe Breschi with his 200th collegiate career coaching win. He won 92 games in his 11 seasons as Ohio State's head coach from 1997-2008 and Saturday's win was his 108th in 10 seasons with the Tar Heels. Perry's goal ended a scoring drought of 28 minutes and 45 seconds for the Tar Heels in the second half of the game. After leading at halftime 7-5, UNC's Timmy Kelly scored off an assist by Perry 1:08 into the second half to put the Heels up 8-5. But St. John's scored the next three goals of the game and tied the contest at 8-8 with 7:08 to play on an unassisted goal by Ryan Schaeffer. Both teams had opportunities over the next several minutes of the game before Jason DeBenedictis took a shot for the Red Storm with 34 seconds left in the game that went wide right. UNC's William McBride backed up the shot and the Heels successfully cleared the ball before Breschi called timeout with 19 seconds left. Coming out of the timeout, freshman Alex Trippi carried the ball to the center from the right side, charged down the middle of the field and fed Perry who was positioned at goal line extended 10 yards out on the left side. Perry stung the net into the upper right corner just inside the pipe to put the Heels up 9-8. Carolina then won the ensuing face-off off the stick of Charles Kelly with Jack Halpert on the ground ball pickup and the Heels killed the clock. North Carolina improved to 6-0 on the season for the first time since 2015 with the victory while St. John's fell to 2-2. Carolina now has a two-goal win against Johns Hopkins to go along with three one-goal wins this campaign, including a pair of overtime triumphs. Only two of Carolina's six wins have been by more than two goals. Eight different Tar Heels scored goals in the game and Perry scored twice and also had an assist. Justin Anderson had a goal and an assist for the Tar Heels and Andy Matthews passed out a pair of assists. The Red Storm was led offensively by Colin Duffy who had two goals and an assist. Joe Madsen had a pair of goals for St. John's while Mike Madsen had a goal and an assist. UNC outshot the Red Storm 45-28 but struggled much of the day to get the ball past Red Storm goalkeeper Matt Hanley who played spectacularly. Hanley made 15 saves, including eight on 10 shots on goal by the Tar Heels in the second half. UNC goalkeeper Jack Pezzulla made five saves altogether. UNC's Charles Kelly won 12 of 21 face-offs against a pair of St. John's face-off men. Kelly led the Tar Heels with five ground balls as the Tar Heels led the Red Storm in that category 32-26. Timmy Kelly and Jack Rowlett each had four ground balls for Carolina. St. John's committed 12 turnovers and was 16 of 20 in the clearing game. Carolina has just eight turnovers and was 20 of 21 in the clearing game. Both teams had one extra-man opportunity with the Tar Heels scoring the only man-up goal of the contest. The Red Storm had the opening goal of the contest from Colin Duffy before the Heels ran off four goals in just 1:56 to take a 4-1 lead. Chris Cloutier tied the game at 5:25 of the period. The Heels then scored back-to-back goals off successful clears with William McBride tallying from Justin Anderson at 4:14 to give the Tar Heels the lead at 2-1. Jack Rowlett claimed the ball on the ensuing face-off and cleared the ball on his own, scoring past Hanley with 3:49 left in the opening period. Carolina won the next face-off on a violation and Andy Matthews fed Justin Anderson for a goal to make it 4-1 with 3:29 left in the quarter. After a goal by St. John's cut UNC's lead to 4-2 entering the second quarter, Carolina regained a three-goal advantage 1:14 into the second frame on an unassisted goal by Tanner Cook. Mike Madsen answered for the Red Storm a little over two minutes later to cut Carolina's lead to 5-3. With 6:28 left in the first half, UNC scored the only man-up goal of the game as Perry tallied off Andy Matthews' second assist of the contest. St. John's scored the next two goals before Brian Cannon bounced a shot past Hanley with 2:32 to play in the second quarter to make it 7-5 Carolina at the half. After Kelly scored early in the third quarter, St. John's face-off man Paul Tornatore scored nine seconds later to slice UNC's lead to 8-6 with 13:43 left in the quarter. Unassisted goals by Joe Madsen with 1:30 left in the third quarter and by Ryan Schaeffer with 7:08 left in the fourth quarter tied the game at 8-8, setting up the tense finish. Over the last 7:08 of the game, UNC had four possessions and St. John's had three possessions. In what often happens in a back-and-forth game, the team with the ball last ended up with the win as Perry delivered his second game-winner of the year. He also scored in overtime to beat Lehigh on February 17. UNC will play host to sixth-ranked Denver at 4 p.m. Monday in Kenan Stadium. The game will be nationally webcast on ACC Network Extra with commentary by Dean Linke and Kyle Straub. The Pioneers improved to 4-1 on the season after beating Furman 13-8 Saturday in Greenville, S.C. The Tar Heels will be looking for their second straight win over the Pioneers after winning 13-9 in Denver a year ago. NOTING THE TAR HEELS Saturday marked the first ever meeting between North Carolina and St. John's. Chris Cloutier scored one goal in the game. He has scored at least one goal in 26 successive games. Cloutier's 26-game scoring streak is the second longest active streak in the country and it is now the third-longest goal scoring streak in UNC history. The only Tar Heels with longer goal scoring streaks are Marcus Holman at 29 games (2012-13) and Mac Ford at 27 games (1983-85). Andy Matthews had two assists against the Red Storm. He now has at least one assist in 15 successive games. That is the sixth longest assist streak in UNC history. Chris Cloutier has now scored 98 goals in his career. He is now tied for 16th in career goal scoring at Carolina. He is now tied for 25th in career points at UNC with 130. Tar Heel head coach Joe Breschi now has 200 career wins on the collegiate level. He was 92-63 in 11 seasons at Ohio State from 1997-2008. Breschi is 108-48 in 10 seasons at UNC. Carolina has won 106 of its last 131 games against non-conference opponents dating back to April 15, 2006. UNC has won 85 of 106 non-conference games since Breschi became the head coach in 2009. UNC is 24-19 in games decided by one goal in Coach Breschi's 10-year tenure. The win marked only the ninth time in the last 40 games in which Carolina has scored in single digits and still prevailed. The last time came on February 11, 2017 when UNC beat Furman 7-3. Print Friendly Version