[NORTH CAROLINA-ST. MARY'S] No. 1 seed North Carolina is returning to the Men's College Cup for the fourth year in a row thanks to its 2-0 win over upstart St. Mary's, which was making its first appearance in the quarterfinals. The game drew a men's record crowd of 5,810 fans at Fetzer Field, exceeding the old record by nearly 1,000 fans.

The Tar Heels used second-half goals from transfers Matt Hedges and Ben Speas to down the Gaels.

The first goal came less than eight minutes after intermission and followed a corner kick as Kirk Urso delivered an out-swinging ball that Hedges put away with a header.

The Tar Heels struck again in the 65th minute when Billy Schuler fed a pass to a cutting Ben Speas, who beat a Saint Mary's defender and broke free to curve a shot around the St. Mary's goalkeeper, Doug Herrick.

The win improved Carolina to 20-2-2 on the year. The 20 wins are the most for a Tar Heel squad since the 2001 group posted 21 en route to the national championship.

The 20 wins also make UNC coach Carlos Somoano just the third coach in NCAA history to win at least 20 games in his first year as a head coach. He joins Chuck Clegg (1982) of San Diego State and Mitch Murray (1991) of Santa Clara in accomplishing the feat.

Dec. 3 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
North Carolina 2 St. Mary's 0.
UNC: Hedges 6 (Urso) 53
UNC: Speas 6 (Schuler) 65
North Carolina -- Goodwin, Okwuonu, Hedges, J.McCrary, Gafa, Urso, Lopez, Martinez, Schuler, Speas, Lovejoy. Subs: Rice, Murphy, McKinney.
St. Mary's -- Herrick, Mohoric, Arambula, Alugas, Watson, Newquist, Cabeza, Godinez, Cazarez, Grider, Sarabia. Subs: Marshall, Howard, Fumia, Hanley, Conner, Schmidt.
Referee: Chico Grajeda.
Att.: 5,810.