Sept. 21, 2006
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -
North Carolina senior forward Heather O'Reilly scored a pair of goals to power the fourth-ranked North Carolina women's soccer team to a 2-1 victory over top-ranked Florida State Thursday night at Fetzer Field before a crowd of 2,181 and a national television audience on Fox Soccer Channel. O'Reilly scored the opening goal of the match on a brilliant 28-yard strike in the opening half and then broke a 1-1 tie in the 84th minute by bending a ball past FSU goalkeeper Ali Mims for the game-winner.
UNC improved to 18-1-1 all-time in Atlantic Coast Conference openers and won its ninth match in a row this season, improving to 9-1. Florida State suffered its first loss of the season after opening 6-0. It was also the ACC opener for the Seminoles. UNC was ranked No. 4 this week in all four national polls while the Seminoles were ranked No. 1 by Soccer America and No. 2 in the three other national polls - the NSCAA coaches, Soccer Buzz and Soccer Times.
The game was nationally televised by Fox Soccer Channel and the match did not disappoint as the top two teams in the ACC went at each other hard for the full 90 minutes. Carolina dominated in the shot department 17-7 but the score was tied until the 84th minute when O'Reilly produced the game-winner for Coach Anson Dorrance's side.
UNC struck first in the match at the 22:22 mark as O'Reilly scored her third goal of the season and the 50th of the storied career at UNC. Yael Averbuch served a ball from the middle of the field to Tobin Heath who carried the ball down the left flank before pushing the ball back to an open O'Reilly. O'Reilly looked as though she was going to dribble the ball into the box but finding herself unmarked she fired a strike from 28 yards out that clipped the bottom of the cross bar and bounced off both the back and side netting.
Carolina kept the lead until the 62nd minute when a miscue in the Tar Heel defensive end led to an open net goal by Florida State senior midfielder India Trotter. FSU sent a long ball over the UNC defensive back three and
Anna Rodenbough was caught in no man's land at the top of the box, unable to pick up the bounding ball which was just outside the box. Trotter pounced on the ball and sent it into the empty net at 61:54 to end Rodenbough's streak of over 558 scoreless minutes in the goal.
After Trotter's goal the Tar Heels stayed on the offensive and allowed the Seminoles to take only one more shot in the final 28 minutes of the match, an effort by Kelly Rowland that was blocked by the UNC defense.
Eventually UNC's work on the offensive end paid off when O'Reilly scored the game-winner on a counter attack at 83:04 of the match. Ariel Harris sent a ball from the back line to Whitney Engen on the Tar Heel side of the midfield stripe. Engen fed O'Reilly who split the defense and then sent a spinning shot from just inside the 18 into the lower left of the goal, craftily bending the ball by Mims.
UNC outshot the Seminoles 17-7 and had a 5-1 edge in corner kicks. Rodenbough made two saves for Carolina, which outshot the Seminoles 7-2 in the second half. Mims finished with three saves for FSU.
O'Reilly now has four goals on the season, three in the last two matches, a 1-0 win over Florida and a 2-1 victory over Florida State. The two goals give her 51 for her career and she moved into 13th place in career points with 137.
Both teams will be in action again in the Triangle on Sunday as the Tar Heels host the Miami Hurricanes at 12 noon at Fetzer Field. FSU will play at NC State on Sunday at 1 p.m.
