Box Score CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Colgate's strong second half was not enough to overcome a large first half deficit as the Raiders fell to fourth ranked University of North Carolina 15-9. Colgate outscored the Tar Heels 5-3 in the second half.

North Carolina started quickly taking a 7-2 first quarter lead, including the first two goals of the game. Colgate answered on a Ben Trumble goal from 15 yards out on the left side. Marshall Terres assisted. UNC answered with a 5-0 run that Terres stopped with an unassisted goal at 0:35.

Colgate opened the second quarter scoring on Brian Minicus' fourth goal of the season with only 54 seconds gone. Minicus circled from behind the net and fired from the right side. Three straight UNC goals gave the hosts a 10-3 advantage. Michael Minicus stopped the run with a shot to the lower right-hand corner of the net on an assist from brother Brian with 3:19 left. Two UNC goals in the final 30 seconds of the half gave the Tar Heels a 12-4 lead at the break.

UNC scored its only goal of the third quarter 3:13 into the period. Brian Minicus scored a highlight reel goal from Terres with 6:29 left in the quarter to complete the scoring for the first 45 minutes.

Rory Connor opened the scoring for the Raiders in the fourth quarter on an assist by Michael Minicus. Connor drilled the goal to the upper left corner from 10 yards out on the left side with 1:22 gone in the period for the third goal of his rookie season. A Tar Heel score temporarily stopped the Raider run until Brian Minicus scored on a wrap-around from behind the cage to earn his second hat trick in as many games in 2022. Michael Minicus made a similar play less than a minute later to close the gap to 14-8.

UNC stretched the lead to seven goals midway through the quarter until Michael Minicus got that goal back quickly on a roll off the right side of the crease and a shot to the upper left-hand corner of the goal to end the scoring. Michael scored on all three shots he took in the game.

UNC outshot Colgate 48-33 in the game. The Raiders' Thomas Colucci won 15 of 27 faceoffs and Colgate was 17-20 on clears. The Tar Heels made good on 21 of 25 clear opportunities. The Raiders had a large deficit in turnovers committing 22 to only 13 for UNC. Carolina won the ground ball stat 27-21.

Raider goalie Matt Lacombe made 13 saves including 10 in a strong second half. 

Head Coach Matt Karweck on the game:
"When you play a team like Carolina, Coach Breschi puts his guys in a good position to score. If you hedge off of a guy he's going to find a way to beat you. They have such great sticks and they're crazy athletic. Our guys gave them a little too much space early and they connected. We had it in our game plan to not do those things.

We settled in in the second half. When you hold a Carolina team to three goals in a half you're doing a lot of things right. We made the adjustments we needed to make, we found an opening on the offensive end and I thought we did a great job of executing the actual game plan we went in with.

I was proud of our effort. When you hold a ranked team down in a half like we did today it gives you something to build off.

The quality of opponents, the way we played down here helps us continue with our growth and development theme. We want this type of competition week in and week out. That's what we're looking for. We're coming back from a great weekend where we learned a ton as a team. Young guys got great experience and we're really starting to come together. We played our best lacrosse in the second half today and that's what you want so far."

UP NEXT: 
Colgate hosts the U.S. Air Force Academy in the home opener on Saturday, February 19, at 12:00 noon.