HPU Men’s Lacrosse Loses at No. 2 North Carolina

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The High Point University men’s lacrosse team took a 20-8 road loss Saturday at No. 2 North Carolina. Brad James tallied four points on one goal and three assists in the game.

“There might not be a better team in the country right now than UNC,” said head coach Jon Torpey. “We did not execute or play with a sense of urgency in the first half and you can’t do that against anyone in Division I. In the second half, the guys battled and began to value the ball. We are going to continue to work hard this week as we have all season at creating consistent effort and execution for 60 minutes.”

Dan Lomas and Mitchell Dupere tallied two goals each. Sophomore Matt Thistle had one goal, one assist and two ground balls. Joseph Taulane picked up three ground balls in the game.

Sophomore Christ Davila went 7-for-16 at the faceoff X and freshman JaIn mie Piluso had five wins on 13 attempts.

Five different Tar Heels scored two goals while Kieran Burke made four saves for the win in the net.

North Carolina opened up a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. With 56 second remaining in the period Mark McNeill took a penalty for holding. HPU capitalized on the opportunity for its first goal of the game. Lomas scored with an assist by James.

The Tar Heels kept HPU off the scoreboard in the second quarter, opening up a 13-1 lead at the half.

UNC scored the first three goals of the third quarter to push the lead to 16-1. With 12:49 on the clock Dupere scored the first of six straight goals, assisted by James. Lomas, Thistle, Bryce Parietti, Dupere and Hunter Edens all scored to cut the lead to 16-7.

In the fourth quarter North Carolina outscored HPU 4-1 to win the game 20-8.

Garrett Swaim and Nick Bittner had two caused turnovers each. Austin Geisler made three saves in the first 25 minutes and took the loss. Anthony Porchetta made nine saves in the final 34 mnutes.