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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – North Carolina scored eight second-quarter goals and then held off one final Colgate charge for a 19-12 NCAA Championship First Round victory here Sunday.
 
The Raiders tallied the final three goals of the first period to grab a 4-3 lead. But North Carolina, seeded third in the NCAA field, responded by outscoring Colgate 8-2 in the second quarter to make it 11-6 at halftime.
 
Colgate rallied again, scoring the last three of the third and then the first goal of the fourth to pull within 15-12. But that's as close as the Raiders could muster.
 
Ryan Walsh and Chase Wittich led the offensive attack with a hat trick apiece. For Walsh, it was his fifth hat trick of the season and 24th of a glorious career. The senior attackman wound up with 139 goals and 203 points to finish alone in second place in both categories in the Colgate records book.
 
Wittich posted his very first collegiate three-goal game.
 
Ground balls were decisive, with North Carolina claiming a 43-28 edge. The Tar Heel advantage was a combined 27-10 in the second and fourth quarters when they outscored the Raiders 12-3.
 

Colgate's season concludes at 10-6. The Class of 2015 posted a 41-24 record that was one victory shy of matching the best four-year run in program history. Head coach Mike Murphy's four-year record with the Raiders mirrors that of the senior class, with two NCAA tournament appearances, two Patriot League regular season titles and one tournament crown.
 
North Carolina improves to 13-3 and advances to play sixth-seeded Maryland next weekend in Annapolis.
 
Bottom Line
• North Carolina 19, Colgate 12
 
Won-Lost Records
• Colgate concludes its season at 10-6.
• Third-seeded North Carolina improves to 13-3 and advances to play sixth-seeded Maryland next Sunday afternoon in Annapolis. The winner of that game earns a berth in the national semifinals.
 
Facts & Figures
• Raiders goalkeeper Brandon Burke matched his second-best save total of the season with 14 – and yet North Carolina still put up a season-high goal result against Colgate.
• The 19 goals were the most by a Colgate opponent since Cornell scored that many two years ago.
• North Carolina entered the game second nationally in goals at 14.53, second in points at 23.60 and third in assists at 9.07. And the Tar Heels improved on all three numbers.
• UNC finished the game with 19 goals and 11 assists for 30 points.
• Their 54 shots, 33 shots on goal and 43 ground balls were all season-highs against the Raiders. Previous bests were 44 by Holy Cross, 26 by BU and Cornell, and 38 by Cornell, respectively.
• The Tar Heels really took control in the second and third quarters, when they outshot the Raiders a combined 31-16 and beat them to ground balls by a 27-10 count.

• Alex Kinnealey showed why he was an All-Patriot League performer at the faceoff-X. In just his third game back from what was thought to be a season-ending injury, Kinnealey scraped together 12 faceoff wins against 19 losses.
• Kinnealey and Peter Marchetto combined to win 14 faceoffs to North Carolina's 21 – not a bad result at all for the unit that ranked last in the country coming in.
• Clears were 14-of-18 for Colgate and 14-of-17 for North Carolina.
• Colgate's man-up unit went 2-of-3 and finished the season 28-of-50 for 56.0 percent. That lifts the Raiders to No. 2 in the country behind only Denver's 58.6 percent. UNC was 1-of-2 on the man-up.
• The Raiders committed four turnovers early but finished with just 13 – less than one more than their season average. North Carolina committed 12 turnovers.
• This was Colgate's first game on grass since the Raiders played on it twice in 2013 – at New York's Citi Field against Michigan and at the Lehigh football stadium in the regular season meeting.
 
Raider Scoring Recap
• Ryan Walsh and Chase Wittich posted hat tricks to lead the Raider attack.
• For Walsh, it was his fifth hat trick of the season and 24th of his career. The senior captain played some of the best lacrosse of his career over his final seven games, scoring 20 goals against the best competition in the land and leading the Raiders to a Patriot League championship.
• The hat trick for the freshman attacker Wittich was his first career.
• Cameron Williams scored twice, and the Raiders had single goals from Matt Clarkson, Peter Donato, Anthony Abbadessa and Tyler Rigo.
• Clarkson capped a terrific senior captain season with three assists, giving him a team-high 30 for the season.
• The midfielder finished as the team leader with 51 points.
• Other assists went to Williams and Wittich with two apiece, and then Donato, Matt Reyes-Guerra-Dunn and Jack Stebbins with one each.
• The two Williams assists matched his career high and sparked Colgate's first goal-scoring flurry. The junior midfielder found Walsh and then Abbadessa with perfect feeds for slam-dunks that made it 3-3.

• Clarkson scored soon after and Colgate led 4-3 at the end of the first quarter.
• Then trailing 15-8 in the third quarter, Williams and Wittich struck for a pair of goals each to give the Raider one last life. Clarkson assisted on the last three of those four consecutive goals that made it 15-12 with 13:37 remaining in the game.
• Not surprisingly, North Carolina's eight goals in the second quarter were a season-high for one period, both for the Tar Heels and against the Raiders. Previous high for UNC in a quarter this year was seven on two occasions, while Colgate had allowed six in a period twice.
 
Senior Class Leaves Legacy
• Colgate's Class of 2015 compiled a 41-24 record that includes two NCAA tournament apperances, two Patriot League regular season titles and one tournament crown.
• The 41 wins tie for second-most by a four-year class in program history.
• Departing seniors are Clarkson, Kinnealey, Reyes-Guerra-Dunn, Walsh, Conor Braddish, Jack O'Callaghan, Geoffrey Sullivan, Parker Weinstock and Matt Yeager.
 
Turning Point
• Colgate scored three goals in a 2:04 stretch late in the first quarter to take a 4-3 lead over the host Tar Heels.
• But North Carolina responded with an eight-goal second quarter, capped when Steve Pontrello scooped up mad scramble loose ball and shoved it home just five seconds before the halftime horn.
• UNC went into the break leading 11-6 and Colgate never drew closer than three goals the rest of the way.
 
From the Sources
• Colgate head coach Mike Murphy: (On the game) "When you get to this time of year, there's only ever going to be one team that's going to end its season with a victory. So I can't be prouder of the 48 guys who are in that locker room right now.
"The senior class started this thing in the NCAA tournament back in 2012, and to end it in the NCAA tournament is a credit to them. We had great leadership from our seniors, and it just shows you what this program is all about."
• Colgate attackman Ryan Walsh: (On the pace of play) "Early in the game, we were a little sluggish. But once we started making them work and had longer possessions, guys were finding creases inside and were wide open for dunks and for easy offense.
"There were times when we had careless turnovers or guys trying to do too much, but it's a big game and guys are trying to make plays. It's going to happen."
(On scoring so many goals late in the season) "It's a credit to my teammates. We just played so efficiently on offense. It's no secret we didn't have the ball much – faceoff guys were busting their tails but that's just the way it fell. It forced us to be more efficient offensively and we had to finish.
"I had to adjust to that and as the season went on, we all bought in and it showed. I was getting easy looks because my teammates were making plays."
• Colgate attackman Chase Wittich: (On finding space inside) "It was just read and react. When we are playing fast and playing well, things happen and we get those shots right on the doorstep. That's what we were going for."
(On today's matchup) "I just wanted to come out and play hard. I didn't want it to be the last game for the seniors, so I was trying to do my best."
 
Check the video for the complete postgame press conference.
 
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance at Fetzer Field was 929.
• Colgate volunteer assistant coach Matt Abbott was a late arrival Sunday. Abbott's Chesapeake Bayhawks of Major League Lacrosse defeated the Charlotte Hounds 14-10 in Charlotte. Abbott then was supposed to take a private plane for the quick trip to Chapel Hill, but uncertainty with Tropical Storm Ana grounded his flight. Abbott switched to ground transportation and arrived at halftime.
 
Up Next
• Colgate's season is complete.