UNC stands tall, clinches ACC Coastal Division in men’s soccer

North Carolina soccer coach Carlos Somoano said he’s never coached basketball, but he’s certainly got situational substitutions down pat.

Tucker Hume and Andy Lopez scored second-half goals on headers seconds after they entered the match, lifting fifth-ranked UNC to a 2-1 victory Friday night over Louisville at Fetzer Field.

The win clinched first place in the Coastal Division for the Tar Heels (13-1-1, 6-1 ACC), who will be either the first or second seed in the ACC tournament that begins Nov. 4.

Louisville (6-7-2, 1-3-3) held a 1-0 lead on junior midfielder Daniel Johnson’s fifth goal of the year when he one-timed a shot from 18 yards in the 55th minute off a free kick.

Nine minutes later, however, it was time for the 6-foot-5 Hume, who leads UNC with eight goals despite playing most of the season as a substitute. With his back to the goal, the redshirt junior forward headed a long throw-in by Jordan McCrary inside the far post for the equalizer only 31 seconds after returning to the match.

The game-winner was almost a replay. Again it was McCrary with the long throw-in, and it came to the near post for senior defender Jonathan Campbell and Hume. Campbell flicked the ball, it skimmed over Hume to Lopez, and the freshman midfielder, who had entered the match only one minute earlier, finished with a header for his third goal of the season on his first touch of the night.

“I know our two big guys, Jonny and Tucker, were winning the headers,” Lopez said. “I was trying to watch the flicks and was in the right place at the right time.”

Hume and Campbell, who stands 6-2, make for inviting targets on restarts. “Usually what they do is position someone in front of me and in back,” Hume said.

Louisville tried to front Hume with smaller defenders, in this case the 5-11 Joey Kunkel, to no avail.

Somoano said he had planned to get Hume and Lopez into the match, but that they entered in time for the crucial throw-ins was coincidence.

“The reality is when you’re subbing good players, they look like good subs,” Somoano said.

Another UNC reserve also turned in a big performance for the Tar Heels. Redshirt senior Sam Euler made his third career start in place of redshirt freshman James Pyle, who suffered a head injury in the first half of Tuesday’s 6-1 victory at Campbell. Euler only had to make one save, but it was a big one as he grabbed Tate Schmitt’s blast from 15 yards in the 89th minute.

Louisville coach Ken Lolla, whose Cardinals beat UNC in the ACC tournament quarterfinals at Fetzer Field last year, said his team purposely played conservatively in the first half before opening things up. UNC outshot Louisville 10-8, with Casey Axman making two saves for the Cardinals, but Louisville had an 8-6 edge in second-half shots.

“I think we were effective,” said Lolla, a standout at Duke in his playing days. “Unfortunately they have a guy who is 7 feet tall, and they found him a couple of times.

“It’s a very unforgiving league. This is definitely a microcosm of our season. We look like we’re a good team but haven’t been getting the results.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 9:41 PM with the headline "UNC stands tall, clinches ACC Coastal Division in men’s soccer."