'Cuse Clinches ACC Tournament Berth with Dominant Win Over UNC

Saturday, April 16

Syracuse, NY

4 p.m.

Syracuse University

#10 North Carolina

Photo by: Michael J. Okoniewski

'Cuse Clinches ACC Tournament Berth with Dominant Win Over UNC

4/16/2016 7:01:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

The No. 11 Syracuse men's lacrosse team (7-4, 2-2 ACC) locked up a berth in the 2016 ACC Championship and a chance to defend its conference title after a crucial win over No. 10 North Carolina (7-5, 2-1 ACC), to hand the Tar Heels their first conference loss on Saturday.

Dylan Donahue and Sergio Salcido each recorded five points, Nick Mariano contributed a hat trick and Ben Williams won 16-of-24 faceoffs to lead 'Cuse past Carolina in the regular-season conference finale.

"I thought our guys had a tremendous effort today, we came out ready to play," said head coach John Desko. "I could sense in the locker room there was a lot of energy there and to come out and get that lead in the first half was big for us. I thought the defense was very, very stingy, we slid and covered better than we have all year and we've been working on that so it's nice to see that paid off.

"In the second half when they made their run, they got within a couple, it was good to see our defense settle down and our offense put a few more back up on the board to secure the win. All-in-all, a very good win for us; a win that puts us in the ACC Tournament. Just the way we played and the way we came out was great for our confidence going down the stretch."

Syracuse got the scoring started early after an Evan Molloy save led to a transition goal by the Orange, with Donahue finding Tim Barber on the left side of the cage for the goal less than two minutes into play. North Carolina answered the goal moments later, with Michael Tagliaferri scoring on a low shot as he was hit for the first Tar Heel goal.

Salcido then beat his man to put Syracuse back on top once again with 8:32 remaining in the first, but Tagliaferri evened things back up at two each once again.

That's when the Orange went on an 6-0 run to open things up. Salcido scored on a blast to the top-right corner on a feed from Derek DeJoe and Nick Mariano buried a pass from Barber with little time left in the first to end the period with a 4-2 lead. 'Cuse continued the run into the second. Donahue fed a streaking Joe Gillis in transition to make it 5-2, before Donahue found Barber on the Orange's first man-up opportunity to give Syracuse a 6-2 lead with just-under 10 minutes remaining before halftime.

SU notched two more before halftime, both on assists from Salcido. Nick Mariano scored the first with 6:02 left before intermission, and Donahue notching the second extra-man goal of the day for 'Cuse three minutes later to head into the locker room with an 8-2 lead.

North Carolina opened the second half scoring just over a minute into the second half on a goal from Luke Goldstock, but Salcido immediately answered for his hat trick.

The Tar Heels then went on a 4-0 run to get back to within two, but Scott Firman forced a turnover near midfield that started a Syracuse fast break, leading to a Jordan Evans goal to put 'Cuse up 10-7 with uner-10 minutes to play and didn't look back.

Nick Weston buried a shot from 15 yards out before Nick Mariano recorded his third of the afternoon with two minutes remaining. After Carolina pressured the Orange late, Evans finished a behind –the-back to provide the final result in the waning seconds.

Next, Syracuse will host Binghamton on Wednesday in a final tune up before the ACC Tournament.

GAME NOTES: Dylan Donahue extended his points streak to 50 games and goals streak to 35 games in the win, both of which lead the nation … With five points on the day, Donahue is now just one point shy of Paul Gait for 14th on the all-time points list at Syracuse … Brandon Mullins caused two turnovers on the day, which moves him into third all-time on Syracuse's caused turnovers list with 62 in his career … Ben Williams won at-least 67-percent of his faceoffs in back-to-back games after his 18-of-22 performance against Cornell on Tuesday … Nick Piroli recorded his first point since returning from injury after. It's his fourth game back after being sidelined with a lower-body injury after the season opener against Siena.