Down 12-10 with two minutes left in the fourth quarter, Syracuse needed boost.
Enter freshman Brendan Curry.
With 1:34 left on the clock Curry fired his seventh goal of the season to pull SU to within one. Just 46 seconds later, Curry scored again to send the game to overtime, where the Orange would prevail 13-12.
“Brendan was out there because he had the hot hand,” Syracuse coach John Desko said. “You saw how hard he was going to the goal.”
Curry was not done with his heroics in regulation.
In overtime he fired a precision pass to Brendan Bomberry, who beat UNC goalie UNC goalkeeper Alex Bassil on the doorstep to complete the comeback. It was Curry’s third point of the day.
“We didn’t really call a play,” Curry said. “Lefty (Bomberry) is just so good off ball I could trust throwing it in there and he caught it and made a play.”
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The late rally capped off an entertaining back and forth between the Orange and the Tar Heels, with the teams playing even through the first quarter and into halftime.
Though North Carolina took an early two-goal lead in the fourth quarter, back-to-back goals from Nate Solomon tied the game at 9 with 12:58 left.
But UNC reeled off three straight goals, the last of which came from Alex Trippi with 7:22 left to give North Carolina what appeared to be an insurmountable 12-9 lead. But Stephen Rehfuss scored with 4:26 let, setting up Curry’s brilliant finish.
“At this point in the season I try and think of myself not as a freshman anymore,” Curry said. “We’ve all played the same amount.”
It was that kind of team mentality helped propel the Orange to victory, which kept SU perfect on the season (4-0) in ACC play.
“It was pretty upbeat the whole way,” Desko said. “They were encouraging each other.”
Syracuse next takes on Navy on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. in the Carrier Dome.
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