The University of North Carolina Tar Heels defeated Wake Forest 29-17 tonight in Chapel Hill in the opening weekend of Atlantic Coast conference play. Missed tackles in the midfield and failure to secure ball in the tackle plagued the Demon Deacons all night and left Wake wondering what could have been.
Wake Forest missed an opportunity to take an early lead as flyhalf Johnny McMurray was just wide on a penalty goal attempt in the opening minutes. UNC had made clear their intentions to run their attack through their centers from the opening whistle and were unlucky not to have scored an early try when the referee adjudged the Tar Heel inside center to have possibly stepped on the dead ball line before touching the ball down for what would have staked UNC to a lead in the first few minutes. UNC got the try a few minutes later, however, as missed tackles allowed UNC in under the posts and gave them a 7-0 lead. Moments later McMurray was true an another penalty attempt and cut the lead to 7-3. Wake's forwards began to assert themselves and a tight multi-phase attack inside the Tar Heel 22 resulted in prop Mat Storck powering over for a try. McMurray's conversion put Wake ahead 10-7. Both teams had scoring opportunities in the remainder of the half, but neither was able to turn pressure into points and the halftime whistle blew with Wake leading by 3.
UNC opened the second half with a sustained attack that culminated in a try in the corner to regain the lead 12-10. Wake Forest dominated the scrum and breakdown for the next twenty minutes, but saw many opportunities go lacking as twice McMurray smartly kicked into space, but the ball unlickily rolled past the dead ball line and gave UNC scrums in Wake territory. Meanwhile, UNC repeatedly turned Wake ball over in the tackle. The Tar Heels were able to extend their lead to 19-10 when their flyhalf sent a deep kick into Wake territory and recovered a fortuitous bounce to go in for the score.
Wake responded well, and after a number of powerful scrums inside Tar Heel territory, #8 Brendan Shea went over for a try. McMurray's conversion brought the Demon Deacons within 2 and Wake had the momentum and looked poised to steal a road win. But on the ensuing restart Wake committed another turnover inside their own 22 and the Tar Heels wasted no time in capitalizing, using their midfield attack to go in under the posts and essentially ice the victory. As Wake pushed hard to get within 7 and at least garner the bonus point, UNC was awarded another penalty which they converted at full time to make the final score 29-17. UNC moves to 1-0 in conference play with 5 points, having secured the 4 try bonus point, while Wake begins the season at 0-1 with 0 standings points.
A disappointed Coach Kane said after the loss, "The game was there for us to win, but we simply didn't execute when we needed to, both offensively and defensively. We knew coming in that their strength was in the midfield and how we handled that defensively would determine the outcome. Unfortunately, as you would expect from a team as well-coached as UNC, they exploited our weaknesses in defensive structure and fundamentals and deserved the victory."
In the JV game, Wake suffered its second loss of the night, falling 14-10. Scrumhalf Will Hank continued his impressive play this spring, directing play extremely well and scoring his 4th try in 3 games this spring. Freshman Jake Marshel scored Wake's other try, while freshman Ted McGuiggan and sophomore Jaime Drewery also had standout performances.
Wake travels to Atlanta next weekend to take on Georgia Tech in what is now a must win game for the Demon Deacons if they hope to have any shot of garnering the ACRL's automatic qualifying bid to the national playoffs. Georgia Tech lost handily at Clemson today, but were undermanned and will have a much stronger side on the field next weekend to face Wake Forest. Kickoff is at 2pm at Silverback Stadium.
Wake Varsity vs North Carolina:
1. Matt Storck, Sr.
2. Jeff Millar, Sr.
3. Nick Conte, Sr.
4. Christian Gutowski, Fr.
5. James Watson. So.
6. Tim Zage, So. (Liam McIntyre, So. @ 45)
7. Rob Elmore, So. (Paul Shumaker, So. @ 30)
8. Brendan Shea, Sr. (c)
9. Jack Zimmerman, So. (Will Hank, Sr., @ 73)
10. Johnny McMurray, Jr.
11. Franco Cima, So.
12. Ben Cohen, Sr.
13. Ryan Tacon, So.
14. Brandon Turner, Sr.
15. Tommy Kinzer, Fr.
Tries: Storck, Shea
Cons: McMurray
Pens: McMurray
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