College Men: Murphy sends Carolina to College Cup

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Dec 3, 2016

Limited to six games with a foot injury, transfer Drew Murphy came off the bench and scored a golden goal to send No. 9 seed North Carolina to the Men's College Cup for the seventh time with a 1-0 win over Providence before a season-high crowd of 4,009 fans at Fetzer Field.

The Tar Heels will face either Louisville or Stanford on Friday in Houston.

“I’m really proud of these guys for what they were able to do tonight,” said North Carolina head coach Carlos Somoano. “We’re going to Houston with high ambitions. We’re not going there to celebrate, we’re going there to achieve. Drew did a great job and he’s hung in there all year, to make that happen, I’m very proud of the way were leaving Fetzer Field tonight.”

Freshman Mauricio Pineda found Murphy, who transferred from UC Santa Barbara this fall, on the left wing, and he cut to his right and fired a right-footed shot that deflected off keeper Colin Miller’s gloves and into the net for his first goal at UNC.

“It’s all kind of a blur," said Murphy, "the ball came into me and I’m left-footed so I just closed my eyes and shot.”

Carolina controlled possession for long stretches of the match and held a 16-6 edge in shots, but Miller, the Big East Co-Goalkeeper of the Year, made five saves to keep the home team off the scoreboard until Murphy's goal in the 102nd minute.

Carolina limited German Julian Gressel, who scored in all three previous Friar postseason games, to only two shots.

Dec. 2 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
North Carolina 1 Providence 0. Goal: Murphy (Pin3da) 102.
North Carolina -- Pyle, Comsia, Storm, W.Hume, Pineda, Lindley, Bruening, Winn, Melo, Wright, T.Hume. Subs: Murphy, October, Krause, Pieters.
Providence -- Miller, Kilday, Serrano, Wilson, Jecewicz, Sailor, Kline, Griffin, Constantine, Reardon, Gressel. Subs: Vigliotti, Hamilton, Dacosta.
Att.: 4,009.