Tar Heels Defeat Duke In ACC Men's Soccer Championship Quarterfinals
Sixth-seeded North Carolina will face either Wake Forest or Clemson Friday evening.
North Carolina's Michael Callahan scored the game-winning goal just 13 minutes into the game to push the Tar Heels past third-seeded Duke.

North Carolina's Michael Callahan scored the game-winning goal just 13 minutes into the game to push the Tar Heels past third-seeded Duke.

Nov. 14, 2007

CARY, N.C. - In Wednesday's quarterfinal round of the 2007 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Soccer Championship, sixth-seeded North Carolina upset No. 3 seed Duke 1-0 at the SAS Soccer Complex in Cary, N.C. The Tar Heels, who improve to 7-7-5 on the year with the win, will advance to the conference championship semifinals for the third time in the last four years.

Keeping in line with the tradition of what has always been a heated rivalry, Wednesday evening's game was very evenly played. Through the game's first 10 minutes, both defenses controlled the competition, limiting the offenses to very few opportunities.

In the 13th minute, North Carolina seized its first clean opportunity when junior midfielder Michael Callahan converted on a cross from junior Scott Campbell for a Tar Heels score. Callahan's goal was his second goal of the season. Heading into the half, each team had recorded only two shots.

In the second half, the Tar Heel and Blue Devil offenses began to put pressure on the defense, and each team had several chances to get on the board. The Tar Heels missed several opportunities to extend their lead, including a shot on an open goal that sailed wide, and a breakaway shot that rolled just feet wide.

In the game's final minutes, the Blue Devils had several opportunities to tie, but were unable to convert. On a free kick with less than three minutes remaining, a Duke shot sailed left of the goal. Then, with less than 15 seconds remaining on the game clock, a header by a Blue Devils player missed just to the left of the goal's upper post.

For the contest, North Carolina posted seven shots, while Duke had six. Campbell led the Tar Heel offense with two shots, and the Blue Devils were paced by junior Mike Grella and senior Paul Dudley, who each had two shots.

In the ACC Championship semifinals, the Tar Heels will face the winner of Wednesday's last quarterfinal matchup between Wake Forest and Clemson. That game is scheduled for an 8:00 p.m. start Friday evening.

Friday's first semifinal will take place at 5:30 p.m. The championship game will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 18. All games are available online through ACCSelect.com, while the championship game will be nationally-televised on Fox Sports Net. The ACC men's soccer awards ceremony will be immediately following the title game.

For complete results, please visit TheACC.com and make sure to check out the 2007 ACC Men's Soccer Championship page.


Quotes

North Carolina Coach Elmar Bolowich
"It was a great game for us today. The boys came prepared - played well, played together, played hard. I think we deserved to win this game. Duke made it interesting at the end when they risked a lot and threw players forward. On the other hand, it opened us for good counter opportunities. It could have gone 2-0 for us, and they had a couple of opportunities as well. As usual it was an exciting Duke-Carolina match-up. I'm just glad for our team and program that we came out on top and hopefully we can take care of business on Friday as well."

Michael Callahan
"I played the ball into Bill. Bill played a great through ball to Scott, and I just kept running. Scott played a really nice ball across and I was able just to put it in. It was a great team goal."

"(This tournament) is the vehicle to the NCAA Tournament for us. Tonight was a must win. Friday is a must win. And obviously we always want to win the ACC Championship. It's a huge deal."