The UNC men's soccer team claimed its 2nd national title in school history with a 1-0 win over upstart UNC-Charlotte in the College Cup Final.
It was clear the late running game on Friday night versus UCLA, which went through two extra periods then penalty kicks, hurt the Heels in this game. UNC appeared ragged and allowed the underdog 49ers to control the game. Charlotte outshot the Heels 19-10 and kept the pressure on UNC most of the game. Fortunately all it takes is one goal and the Heels got it from Ben Speas in the 65th minute. For Speas this was his second straight national title having won with Akron a year ago before transferring to UNC over the summer(non-revenue sports do not have the one year rule.)
After the Speas goal, it was 25 minutes of UNC playing defense against a 49er team that basically dominated play all game. During the last five minutes, UNCC had multiple shots to tie the game. One came off a corner which pulled Tar Heel keeper Scott Goodwin away from the goal. The 49ers managed to get a shot off which midfielder Jordan Gafa saved with a header. Shortly after that UNCC got a shot which was saved by Goodwin followed by a header that hit the crossbar, a shot that was blocked followed by one that just missed the goal to the right.
UNC finishes the season 21-2-3 and became the first ACC team in sixteen years to win the ACC regular season, tournament and NCAA tournament titles all in the same year.