The University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team scored the first six goals of the game Saturday afternoon and never looked back as it eased to a 20-9 victory over the Mercer University Bears at Centennial High School Football Stadium in Roswell, Ga. A crowd of 1,022 fans watched the season opener for both teams. Coach Joe Breschi's team was led by a balanced scoring attack that featured seven players with multiple goals in the game and three with multiple assists. Junior midfielder Justin Anderson led the way with a hat trick while junior midfielder Tanner Cook had two goals and a career-high three assists. Senior midfielder Timmy Kelly had two goals and two assists for the Tar Heels as did junior midfielder William Perry. A pair of freshman attackmen – Jacob Kelly and Nicky Solomon – had two goals and an assist for the Heels. Solomon was playing on the same field where he played his high school lacrosse, graduating last spring. Senior attackman Andy Matthews also had two goals and an assist. UNC defensemen Evan Egan and Jack Rowlett had single goals for UNC and the other tallies came from Alex Trippi, Matt Gavin and Henry Schertzinger. The Bears were led by Will McCarthy's hat trick while Pascal Coombs had two goals. Three Mercer players- Sean Goldsmith, Michael Quinn and Mikey Ewing had a goal and an assist in the encounter. UNC outscored the Bears 6-1 in the first quarter and 5-2 in the second quarter to build an 11-3 halftime lead. The Tar Heels extended their lead to 18-5 heading into the final quarter before Mercer outscored the Tar Heels 4-2 in the final quarter, tallying three goals in the final 1:50 of the period to cut a 20-6 deficit to 20-9 at the end. Carolina outshot the Bears 55-35 in the game and both team had 38 ground balls. Mercer had a slight edge at the face-off circle, winning 17 of 33 draws in the match. Carolina committed 12 turnovers while Mercer coughed up the ball 23 times. UNC had 12 caused turnovers with William Perry, Michael Nathan and Jack Halpert each recording two caused turnovers. Four Tar Heels had a game-high four ground balls – Justin Anderson, Jack Halpert and freshmen midfielders Conner Maher and Zachary Tucci. The Bears also had four players with four ground balls each. Between the pipes, UNC played two goalkeepers with Jack Pezzulla earning the start and the win. He played 45 minutes and made four saves. Senior Alex Bassil played the final quarter and made six saves while allowing four goals. The two Bears' goalkeepers – Josh Tarver and Bradley Hodoval – combined for 15 saves while allowing 20 goals. The Tar Heels sped to a 6-0 lead in the game with six different goal scorers tallying in that run – Timmy Kelly, Jacob Kelly, Nicky Solomon, Justin Anderson, William Perry and Tanner Cook scored in that game-opening run. With the score at 8-3 in favor of North Carolina, the Heels ran off four goals in a row late in the first half and early in the second 30 minutes to go up 12-3. A man-up goal by Justin Anderson started the run before defenseman Evan Egan and Alex Trippi scored before halftime and then Andy Matthews tallied unassisted in the fourth minute of the second half. UNC would go on to score the last five goals of the third quarter to put the game away, leading 18-5 after 45 minutes. It was another run with five different scorers – Nicky Solomon, Jacob Kelly, William Perry, Tanner Cook and Justin Anderson. The Heels return to action next Saturday with the first of six successive home games. UNC will host the Furman Paladins at Kenan Stadium at 12 noon next Saturday. The game will be nationally webcast on ACC Network Extra. The match will feature a coaching matchup of two Tar Heels' alumni –Richie Meade, Class of 1976, for the Paladins and Joe Breschi, Class of 1990, for the Tar Heels. Print Friendly Version