FRISCO, Texas -- Sunday's NCAA Men's College Cup final will have an Atlantic Coast Conference feel to it as North Carolina and Maryland will square off for the national championship. UNC dispatched conference rival and defending national champion Wake Forest 1-0 in Friday's first semifinal while Maryland beat St. John's by the same score in double overtime to set up an all-ACC final Sunday afternoon.
No. 13 seed North Carolina (15-7-1) got an early goal from Brian Shriver and held on to defeat top-seeded Wake Forest (21-2-1) 1-0 in the first game.
"I want to give our guys enormous credit for getting this win and pulling this game out," UNC head coach Elmar Bolovich said. "The effort that they put in was outstanding. That was a total team out there. It made me very proud to see that. It made me very proud to see the way our team responded. I give our team an enormous amount of credit."
Carolina launched their attack early. Some 90 seconds into the game, midfielder Zach Loyd got a decent look at the Wake goal but his effort was denied by Demon Deacons goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald.,p> Just two minutes later, Loyd set up the first goal of the match. After a solid run up the right flank, he spotted Shriver open near the far post. Loyd hit a perfect ball across the field and Shriver headed it into the back of the net to make it 1-0.
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SIGHTS & SOUNDS
That tally was Shriver's first goal since a match at Clemson on Oct. 25. His score also marked the earliest that the Tar Heels had found the back of the net all season.
At the break Wake had six shots to UNC's five. Demon Deacons star forward Marcus Tracy had no shots. However, he came alive in the second half and finished the game with four shots, two of which were on frame. Teammate Corben Bone also had four shots for Wake.
However, the story was the stellar goalkeeping by UNC junior Brooks Hagerty, who finished the night with seven stops. He denied Wake's Zach Schilawski twice at close range and Tracy twice to preserve the clean sheet. It was only the second time this year that WFU had been held scoreless.
"I'm very gutted by the result because we wasted 45 minutes and the value of the first goal was just so evident out there," Wake Forest head coach Jay Vidovich said. "I'm very proud of the effort in the second half. I think we didn't play the way we're capable of playing but we did a tremendous job of adapting our game and finding opportunities. We created enough opportunities but they just didn't fall in today. It was one of those days."
For much of the 104 minutes of play in the second match, Maryland controlled the flow against St. John's. The Terrapins had 18 shots compared to just three by the Red Storm after 104 minutes. But after a foul just outside the penalty area, UM senior Graham Zusi stepped up, took a free kick from about 25 yards out and struck it perfectly for the game's only tally to end the game.
"I'm delighted with the victory," Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovski said. "Appropriately, the best player on the field had the game-winner. We knew St. John's would be tough to penetrate and at times, they made it difficult. But I thought we carried the game and carried it very well. At times, it was tough to get a rhythm against St. John's. I thought Neal Kitson was outstanding in goals and made three or four incredible saves. I'm just happy we're playing on Sunday."
Zusi finished the game with a game-best nine shots, with five of those on frame. Jason Herrick had seven shots for the Terps, including five that were on goal.
St. John's senior goalkeeper Neal Kitson helped keep the Red Storm in the game for much of the night. In his final collegiate game, Kitson came up with nine saves, stopping all but Zusi's free kick.
"I thought that Neal in particular had a fantastic game in goal," St. John's head coach Dr. Dave Masur said. "He made a lot of great saves to keep us in it. I thought Rory (Quinn) did a great job of really controlling the defensive midfield and helping out on their two central forwards."
With the loss, the Terrapins have now eliminated the Red Storm from the NCAA tournament in each of their last four trips (2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008).
"I'm very proud of our guys," Masur said. "They played really well against a great Maryland team. Maryland is a very explosive, well-coached and dynamic team like they've been all season. We knew we had our hands full."
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