FRISCO, Texas -- In Wake Forest's first three games of the 2008 NCAA tournament, the Demon Deacons had scored a total of 13 goals. In Friday's first semifinal, North Carolina held Wake scoreless as the 2007 champions saw the defense of their title ended one game early, just the second time all year WFU has failed to score a goal. The only other time they failed to find the back of the net was in a scoreless draw with Duke on Oct. 18.
Star senior forward Marcus Tracy finished the game with four shots as did sophomore midfielder Corben Bone. But none of Wake's 20 shots delivered positive results.
"We created enough chances to put the game away and we weren't able to finish those chances," Tracy said. "I think the biggest thing about it is that we weren't able to find our rhythm in the first half. We were chasing the game in the entire second half. This shows the heart and desire that we have to create those chances even in the dire moments of the game."
The seeds for that lackluster offensive performance were sown in the first half when the Demon Deacons looked out of sorts from the opening whistle.
"I think that overall, we were out of rhythm and not playing the way we needed to play," Tracy said. "As a result, we weren't able to get the ball up, wide and moved it around like we were used to doing."
Unlikely heroes: Earlier in the year, North Carolina junior goalkeeper Brooks Haggerty wasn't seeing much time between the posts for the Tar Heels because he was recuperating from a concussion suffered prior to the season. However, he entered at halftime of UNC's regular season finale at Maryland on Nov. 7 and has played every minute since.
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SIGHTS & SOUNDS
Haggerty had been in goal for a pair of shutouts in the Tar Heels' NCAA tournament run but on Friday, he came up big with seven saves against top-ranked Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons finished the night with 20 shots to UNC's nine but the UNC 'keeper was never rattled.
"They had a lot of attacks there and were packing it in the box and throwing balls in there," Haggerty said. "My ultimate goal was to not let the ball in and I was attacking the ball as hard as I could. I was just determined to get the ball and wasn't going to let anything in there."
Two of those stops came at the expense of a close friend who plays for Wake.
"My best friend since I was four years old is Zack Schilawski and I grew up with all those guys on that team," Haggerty said. "I have a personal grudge against them every time we're on the field with them. But off the field, they're great guys. I'm just working my way back and am trying to do everything possible to help the team be successful."
Brian Shriver's goal about three minutes in, the only one of the match, was the senior forward's first since October 25 in a 3-2 overtime loss at Clemson.
"It's definitely a relief," he said. "I have been working hard the last two games to get into the scoresheet. For me, as long as we're winning, that's all that matters. If I don't score and we win, then that's awesome and I could care less. It's not about stats, it's about the team."
Kitson comes up big: Next month, St. John's goalkeeper Neal Kitson will head to the 2009 MLS Player Combine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But if his performance in the Red Storm's 1-0 double overtime loss to Maryland on Friday was any indication, he could well turn some heads.
The senior from Queens, N.Y. made nine big saves to keep the match scoreless until the 104-minute mark when Maryland's Graham Zusi ended the game with a well-placed free kick from about 25 yards out.
"I thought that Neal (Kitson) in particular had a fantastic game in goal," said St. John's head coach Dr. Dave Masur. "He made a lot of great saves to keep us in it."
But for Kitson, the loss was especially gut-wrenching considering how it ended.
"It's very disappointing," he said. "You get to this stage in the year and we worked real hard preparing for this game. I thought we were going to stick it out and get through both overtimes. It was a great free kick. There's not much you can do about those. It was a great free kick."
More of the same: With Friday night's 1-0 shutout of St. John's, Maryland has now extended their school record for shutouts to 14. The Terrapins limited the Red Storm to just three shots the entire game, including just one in the second half and none in either overtime.
For UM junior defender Omar Gonzalez, the 2007 ACC Defensive Player of the Year and 2008 First Team All-ACC, Friday's performance was business as usual for their stifling defense.
"At the beginning, the back four, we talk every single time off the field and tell each other what we want to do and make sure that on the field, we're talking, staying compact and staying focused on the game to not let them get that many chances," he said. "And that's really what we did. We shut them down in the air and we also shut them down on the ground. We did a good job."
Terps head coach Sasho Cirovski didn't just want to give his back line credit for tonight's stellar defensive effort.
"We take a lot of pride in out attack but we're known for our ability to hunt the ball down," he said. "We have saying that says that we hate not having the ball. We try to get the ball back as quickly as we can. Omar talked about the back four but I think our midfielders and forwards did a great job today as well. Our back four right now is the best back four in the country."
Gonzalez, a Dallas native, also commended his teammates for their great focus on limiting the Red Storm's chances.
"The key was to keep them in front of us and to not let them get behind us," he said. "After that, if their forwards were to get the ball, we weren't going to let them turn. We were just going to spin them and make them go backwards. The midfield did a good job of tracking back and making sure that when they were going back that they were covering a lot of ground and that they knew where to go."
Familiar faces: A number of MLS coaches were in attendance for the College Cup matches. Head coaches present were Steve Nicol of New England and Curt Onalfo of Kansas City. Assistant coaches at the first match included Real Salt Lake's Jeff Cassar, Seattle Sounders FC technical director Chris Henderson and New York Red Bulls assistant Richie Williams. Seeing time for UNC was sophomore midfielder Dustin McCarty, younger brother of FC Dallas midfielder Dax McCarty.
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