Junior forward Ben Speas tallied two goals and an assist helping Carolina to its third ACC Championship in school history as the Tar Heels pulled off the rare double with a 3-1 win over Boston College Sunday in Cary, N.C. The title game win gives the Tar Heels both the outright regular season and tournament titles for the first time in school history.
The Tar Heels jumped out to a 1-0 lead just before halftime when substitute Carlos McCrary headed home a cross from Ben Speas to put UNC in front. Rob Lovejoy worked his way around the defense on the right side of the field and fed a pass toward the top of the box that Speas settled.
Speas broke to his right and toward the end line and lofted a cross to the far post where McCrary was waiting. McCrary headed the ball to the near post and beat Boston College’s Justin Luthy for his third goal of the year and second of the ACC Tournament.
The Tar Heels looked content to take the 1-0 advantage into halftime but when Enzo Martinez was tripped up forty yards from goal Carolina took advantage of its opportunity.
Speas stood over the free kick and sent in a ball that was in-swinging toward the near post. Luthy came out of his goal to attempt to punch the ball away but ran into Matt Hedges and Rob Lovejoy and was unable to stop the ball as it bounced into the net for a 2-0 Carolina lead.
Carolina controlled possession throughout the contest but were caught off guard on a Boston College counter-attack in the 62nd minute. The Eagles played a ball in between a pair of Tar Heel defenders and Matt Hedges closed down in an attempt to make a tackle catching too much of an Eagle forward getting a yellow card and awarding BC with a dangerous free kick just outside the box.
Boston College’s Kyle Bekker took the free kick from 20 yards out and sent it toward the far post. The ball rocketed off the inside of the far post and found the back of the net to pull the Eagles within one at 2-1.
Redshirt junior forward Billy Schuler made his first appearance of the afternoon at the 64:02 mark when he came on to replace Carlos McCrary and immediately paid dividends for the Tar Heels.
Schuler made a run down the right side and cut around a defender before playing a ball across the face of the goal. Speas was Johnny-on-the-spot as he put away the pass for his second goal of the day and helped Carolina regain its two-goal lead.
Goalkeeper Scott Goodwin would make sure the lead would remain two over the final 25 minutes of the contest as the junior came up with three impressive saves for the Tar Heels.
In the 71st minute Colin Murphy was able to jump on a free ball at the top of the box but the charging Goodwin cut off Murphy’s angle and jumped on the ball. A little over eight minutes later, Isaac Taylor challenged Goodwin who was able to punch away the shot for a corner kick.
The 83rd minute saw the Eagles float a ball in from the right flank that Kevin Mejia attempted to flick on goal with his head but Goodwin read the play perfectly and jumped on the shot to keep the Tar Heels in front.
The win is the third ACC Championship in school history for the Tar Heels as the 2011 group joins the 1987 and 2000 teams as tournament champions. It also marks the first time in school history that Carolina has accomplished the double, winning both the ACC regular season and tournament titles. Carolina is the eighth team in ACC history to accomplish the double and the first since Boston College in 2007.
Carolina put five members on the ACC All-Tournament Team for the second straight year as Speas was named the ACC Tournament MVP as he joins Derek Missimo (1987) and Caleb Norkus (2000) as previous Tar Heel winners.
Joining Speas on the All-Tournament team were Enzo Martinez, Matt Hedges, Billy Schuler and Scott Goodwin.
The Tar Heels have officially punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament with the ACC title win but will learn their fate on Monday at 4:30 p.m. on NCAA.com when the NCAA Bracket is released.
ACC All-Tournament Team
Ben Speas – North Carolina (MVP)
Enzo Martinez – North Carolina
Matt Hedges – North Carolina
Billy Schuler – North Carolina
Scott Goodwin – North Carolina
Kyle Bekker – Boston College
Diego Medina-Mendez – Boston College
Colin Murphy – Boston College
Charlie Rugg – Boston College
Hunter Jumper – Virginia
Brian Span – Virginia
Luca Gimenez – Wake Forest