Caton Johnson made the most saves in a game by a University of North Carolina men's lacrosse true freshman goalkeeper in history, including nine in the fourth quarter, and the Tar Heel defense held fifth-ranked Duke scoreless over the last 17:50 of the game as unranked Carolina rallied past the Blue Devils 10-8 before 3,734 fans at sun-drenched UNC Lacrosse Stadium Saturday afternoon. Johnson, who had only played eight minutes this season prior to Saturday, made 21 saves against the Blue Devils and allowed only seven goals (he was in the penalty box when the Blue Devils scored one of their goals). It was the most saves by a UNC goalkeeper since Kieran Burke had 21 saves against Harvard on March 17, 2015 in a 15-10 UNC victory. The two goalkeepers were a big story in the game as Turner Uppgren had a career-high 15 saves for the Blue Devils, three more than he had last Sunday in a 9-8 overtime loss at Syracuse. The Blue Devil senior had seven of his 15 saves in the opening period. UNC bounced back from a 16-9 loss at Maryland last Saturday to improve to 7-3 on the season while winning its ACC opener and beating the Blue Devils for the first time since 2016 and only the third time in Chapel Hill since 2003. Duke is now 8-3 overall and 0-2 in the ACC. The Blue Devils had won seven games in a row this season before its losses to Syracuse and Carolina in the last six days. Carolina played a deep roster, including 10 true freshmen amongst the 27 players who saw the field. UNC started three true freshmen on attack for the first time in school history as Nicky Solomon, Jacob Kelly and Brian Cameron earned the starts. Midfielder Matt Gavin played in the second midfield unit and saw action in just his sixth game this season but led Carolina offensively with two goals and an assist. Brian Cameron matched his career high for goals in a game with two tallies (he also scored twice earlier this year against Furman). Both freshman attackman Nicky Solomon and senior midfielder Timmy Kelly had a goal and an assist for the Tar Heels. Solomon has scored a goal in 10 straight games, each contest of his freshman season, and Kelly ran his streak for successive games with a point to 15 matches over the last two years. Alex Trippi, Justin Anderson, Andy Matthews and Will Nicklaus had goals for Carolina. Nicklaus, whose father played golf at Carolina in the 1980s and whose grandfather is legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus, played in his first game for Carolina. His goal with 1:29 to play in the third quarter pulled UNC within 8-7 and sparked a scoring spree which saw North Carolina score three goals in the final 1:29 of the third quarter. Ryan O'Connell and Tanner Cook added assists for North Carolina. Nakeie Montgomery scored three goals for Duke, all in a row in the third period. His third goal was part of a five-goal run by Duke which lifted it from a 6-3 deficit to an 8-6 lead with 2:50 left in the third period. Garrett Leadmon, Joey Manown, Jake Seau, Kevin Quigley and Reilly Walsh all scored single goals for Duke while Joe Robertson and Brad Smith each had two assists. Robertson and Smith came into the game leading Duke in points with 37 and 30, respectively, but the UNC defense denied both of them goals (Robertson had nine shots-five saved by Johnson-and Smith five shots in the game, three of which were saved by Johnson). The stats in the game were virtually in several areas. Duke outshot Carolina 42-41, including 14-9 in the final period when the Heels scored the only goal between the two teams on 23 shots. Ground balls favored Duke 29-28 and Duke had 14 turnovers and the Tar Heels had 13. Duke was 22 of 24 in the clearing game and North Carolina was 16 of 17. The difference proved to be in the number of saves by each goalkeeper (Johnson 21, Uppgren 15) and the performance by the two teams in the extra-man game. Carolina was whistled for 11 penalties compared to three against Duke. The Tar Heels were twice two men down and Duke finished just two of nine on the EMO while UNC scored one goal in three chances. UNC also had an edge in the face-off circle at 13-9. Both teams used two face-off specialists. Freshman Zachary Tucci was nine of 13 for UNC and sophomore Ryan O'Connell was four of nine. Jordan Ginder won seven of 14 faceoffs for Duke and Brian Smyth was 2 of 8 at the X. Carolina had several defensive heroes in the game as UNC held Duke to its fewest goals in the series between the two teams since March 10, 2010 when the Tar Heels won 13-7 in Durham. Jack Rowlett had a team-high five ground balls for UNC to go along with two caused turnovers. Senior long-stick defenseman Jack Halpert had four ground balls and one caused turnover and freshman short-stick midfielder Connor Maher had three ground balls and a caused turnover. The Tar Heels took a 2-0 lead 2:17 into the match on unassisted goals by Timmy Kelly and Matt Gavin. After Joey Manown scored for Duke at the 9:09 mark off an assist by Brad Smith, Carolina retook a two-goal lead at 4:15 of the opening period as Brian Cameron netted an extra-man goal, assisted by Tanner Cook. Jake Seau scored for Duke with 3:11 left in the quarter which ended with UNC up 3-2. Carolina took a three-goal lead with a pair of goals in the opening 3:15 of the second quarter. Matt Gavin scored his second goal of the game off an assist by Nicky Solomon and then Alex Trippi scored shortly thereafter to make it 5-2 in favor of the Heels. Duke cut into the lead as Garrett Leadmon scored an extra-man goal off an assist by Brad Smith. The Blue Devils were on a two-man advantage and Leadmon's goal was the last of the first half and came at 6:10. Carolina won the opening faceoff of the second half and Nicky Solomon rolled the crease on the left side to score past Uppgren just 23 seconds into the second half. Duke responded with five goals in a row. Reilly Walsh scored an extra-man goal at 11:22 of the period, assisted by Joe Robertson. At the 8:30 mark, Kevin Quigley scored off an assist by Robertson to cut UNC's lead to 6-5. Montgomery then took over the match for the Blue Devils with successive unassisted goals at 7:35, 6:18 and 2:50 of the third quarter to make it 8-6 Blue Devils. As quickly as the momentum seemed to be going all in Duke's direction, Carolina responded by scoring three goals in the final 1:29 of the quarter to take the lead for good. After Nicklaus scored with 1:29 left in the third quarter assisted by Gavin, Tucci won the ensuing faceoff and Carolina scored with 15 seconds left in the quarter as Timmy Kelly sent an arcing pass from behind the cage to Cameron who redirected it into the net on the left side of the crease. Ryan O'Connell then won the next faceoff, claimed the ground ball and sent a bounce pass to Andy Matthews who was alone on the crease to score the ultimate game-winner with eight seconds left in the period. The final period was a test of the Tar Heel defense. Duke outshot the Blue Devils 14-9 in the final period and the Blue Devils had three extra-man opportunities, including one in which they had a two-man advantage. But Johnson's nine fourth-quarter saves carried the day for Carolina. Justin Anderson added an unassisted goal for Carolina with 3:50 to play after splitting two Duke defenders to bounce a shot by Uppgren. Johnson produced two saves in the final 1:11 of the game and Connor Maher forced a turnover when the Tar Heels were down a man with 49 seconds to play and UNC ran out the remainder of the clock. GAME NOTES UNC is now 42-33 all-time against Duke. The Tar Heels have won four of the last seven games in the series. The two teams have split their last six regular-season meetings. Caton Johnson's 21 saves were the most by a UNC goalkeeper since Kieran Burke had 21 against Harvard on March 17, 2015 – a 15-10 UNC victory. Andy Matthews' game-winning third quarter goal gives him 99 points for his career (32 goals, 67 assists). Timmy Kelly has points in 15 straight games dating back to March 24, 2018. Nicky Solomon has scored a goal in each of his 10 games as a freshman. UNC won its ACC opener for the first time since 2016. Matt Gavin had the fourth multi-goal game of his career. Brian Cameron had his second two-goal game of his freshman year. He also scored twice against Furman. Timmy Kelly increased his career point total to 95 and his career goal total to 63.