[ACC] Junior Ben Speas, who played on Akron’s national championship team in 2010, tallied two goals and an assist tolead North Carolina to its third ACC championship with a 3-1 win over Boston College in Sunday’s final in Cary, N.C.
The Tar Heels also won the 1987 and 2000 ACC titles. It also marks thefirst time in school history that Carolina has accomplished the double, winning both the ACC regular season and tournament titles.
The Tar Heels jumped out to a 1-0 lead just beforehalftime when substitute Carlos McCrary headed home a cross from Speas for his third goal of the year and second of the ACC Tournament.
Just beforehalftime, Speas sent a free kick toward the near post, where BC keeper Justin Luthy, who played with Speas in the Columbus Crew academy program, tried to punchthe ball away but ran into Matt Hedges and Rob Lovejoy and was unable to stop the ball as it bounced into the net for a2-0 Carolina lead.
Boston College’s Kyle Bekker reduced UNC’s lead in the 62nd minute when he rocketed a free kick from 20 yards out off the insideof the far post.
Billy Schuler, whose golden goal gave the Tar Heels a 1-0 win over Virginia in the semifinals, came on in the 65th minute toreplace McCrary and immediately paid dividends for the Tar Heels with a run down the right side and cross to Speas, who scored to restore UNC’s two-goal lead.
Goalkeeper
ACC All-Tournament Team
BenSpeas, North Carolina (MVP)
Enzo Martinez, North Carolina
Matt Hedges, North Carolina
Billy Schuler, North Carolina
Scott Goodwin, North Carolina
Kyle Bekker, BostonCollege
Diego Medina-Mendez, Boston College
Colin Murphy, Boston College
Charlie Rugg, Boston College
Hunter Jumper, Virginia
Brian Span, Virginia
Luca Gimenez,Wake Forest