PRESS RELEASE
Johns Hopkins University 
February 28, 2016
BALTIMORE, MD – Tenth-ranked North Carolina outscored host and eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins 10-3 in the first and fourth quarters to combined as the Tar Heels topped the Blue Jays, 15-11, at Homewood Field Sunday afternoon. North Carolina opened with the first four goals of the game and closed with the final five to secure its fifth straight victory in the series.
Carolina (3-1), which took the lead just 17 seconds into the game, led from the first minute until a two-goal spurt by the Blue Jays early in the fourth quarter gave Hopkins its first and only lead of the game at 11-10 with 11:22 remaining. Both Hopkins goals came with the Blue Jays playing man-up as a Holden Cattoni strike at the 11:48 mark was followed by a Shack Stanwick goal 26 seconds later to give the Blue Jays the one-goal lead.
The score stood at 11-10 for just over three minutes before the Tar Heels took advantage of a Johns Hopkins turnover to tie the game at 11. Johns Hopkins goalie Brock Turnbaugh saved an initial Tar Heel shot, but turned the ball over under pressure. Seconds later, Chris Cloutier’s 11th goal of the season knotted the game and ignited the five-goal Tar Heel run to end the game.
Less than 90 seconds after Cloutier’s goal, Michael Tagliaferri got free in the slot and beat Turnbaugh off a quick feed from Shane Simpson. After winning the ensuing faceof, the Tar Heels isolated Simpson at the top and he scored on an ally dodge to make it 13-11 just 38 seconds after the Tagliaferri strike. When Steven Pontrello came from behind to score his third of the game with 2:04 on the clock it was a three-goal lead and Cloutier closed it out with Hopkins chasing in the final minute.
The five-goal run to end the game was one better than the four-goal run to open things for UNC, which got a pair of goals from Patrick Kelly in the opening 13 minutes to fuel the early spree.
Johns Hopkins (1-2) began to chip away and used a 5-2 run over the final 16:39 of the first half to draw within 7-5 at the half. Senior Ryan Brown and freshman Kyle Marr cut the four-goal deficit in half with back-to-back goals that bridged the first and second quarters, but Carolina has its four-goal lead back when Cloutier scored and extra-man goal and Luke Goldstock added one of his own a short time later midway through the second quarter.
Facing a four-goal deficit for the second time in the game, Hopkins quickly gained the momentum with a three-goal surge that included goals by Cody Radziewicz, and John Crawley. An unassisted goal by Simpson with 85 seconds left in the second quarter accounted for a 7-5 Carolina lead at halftime.
After trailing the entire first half, the Blue Jays finally drew even midway through the third as Stanwick and Brown both scored in a 90-second span with each assisting on the other’s tally.
As quickly as it was tied, the Tar Heels had the lead back with Pontrello isolating behind the goal and dodging top side twice in less than 30 seconds to make it 9-7.
The Blue Jays had it tied at 9-9 by the end of the third as second line midfielders Radziewicz and Brinton Valis added goals in the final 2:17 to draw Hopkins even entering the final period.
The Tar Heels grabbed a brief lead when Tagliaferri scored off good ball movement at the 13:14 mark, but Hopkins took the 11-10 lead less than two minutes later when Catttoni and Stanwick scored their back-to-back extra-man goals. Cattoni scored while absorbing an illegal body check from Evan Connell, which led to Stanwick’s man-up goal 26 seconds later.
The Blue Jays had a golden opportunity to push the lead to two a short time later, but North Carolina’s Brian Balkam came up with back-to-back saves in a span of less than fives seconds to keep the score at 11-10 and Cloutier’s goal that ignited the game-ending five-goal run followed quickly after those stops.
Stanwick led Johns Hopkins with a career-high seven points on two goals and a personal-best five assists. Brown added three goals and one assist, while Crawley (1g, 2a), Radziewicz (2g) and Valis (1g, 1a) were Hopkins’ other multi-point scorers. The points were the first two of Valis’s career, while Brown extended his national-best goal-scoring streak to 37 games.
Simpson led North Carolina in scoring with five points on two goals and three assists, while Cloutier (4g), Pontrello (3g) and Taglaferri (3g) all added hat tricks. Junior Stephen Kelly was 17-of-25 on faceoffs and added a game-high nine ground balls for North Carolina, which held advantages in shots (40-37) and ground balls (36-29). Kelly was especially effective in the second half as Carolina won 11-of-15 second-half faceoffs.
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, March 5 when the Blue Jays welcome Princeton to Homewood Field. Faceoff is set for 1 pm.