Records Fall in North Carolina's First-Round Rout of UAlbany

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina would have savored any victory Saturday, given its five-year NCAA tournament drought.

Dominic Pietramala made it an unforgettable one for the third-seeded Tar Heels.

The redshirt junior scored 10 goals to set the NCAA tournament and school single-game marks and break North Carolina’s career scoring record in a 24-6 throttling of UAlbany before 1,402 at Dorrance Field.

“When he’s on, baby, he’s on,” North Carolina coach Joe Breschi said.

Pietramala broke the previous record of nine, set by Syracuse’s Gary Gait (1988 quarterfinals) and matched by Brown’s Oliver Marti (1992 first round), North Carolina’s Chris Cloutier (2016 semifinals) and Penn State’s Mac O’Keefe (2019 quarterfinals).

“When they said 10 goals on the loudspeaker, I was like, ‘Good grief, man,’” said goalie Kent Goode, a roommate of Pietramala’s for three years. “Maybe he could have had 11, but he works his tail off and I’m honestly not surprised. He works day in, day out, and does everything he can for our team.”

Goode made eight saves in his first career start, and freshman Anthony Raio scored three goals and added an assist for the Tar Heels (13-4), who broke program records for goals in an NCAA tournament game and postseason margin of victory. Both of those prior marks were established in a 21-5 drubbing of Michigan State in the first round in 1987.

North Carolina earned its first postseason victory since a 2021 quarterfinal defeat of Rutgers and will meet the winner of Sunday’s game between sixth-seeded Syracuse (11-5) and Yale (9-5) next Saturday in Hempstead, N.Y.

It was already an unusual day for the Tar Heels even before the opening faceoff. Attackman Owen Duffy, a Tewaaraton Award finalist with 30 goals and 39 assists, was ruled out with what the school described as a “lower-body injury” suffered in Sunday’s ACC title game loss to Virginia.

“It’s tough when your best player isn’t in, so just being a collective unit is what it took,” Pietramala said. “It took all of us. I’m fortunate to be on the receiving end, but honestly it could have been anyone.”

Breschi said Duffy was “day-to-day” and acknowledged the Tar Heels didn’t know how quickly the junior would respond to treatment. He said he was hopeful Duffy could make progress this week.

Pietramala ensured Duffy’s on-field presence was not required, at least for the tournament’s first weekend.

“I think he needed to step up without Duffy in the lineup,” UAlbany coach Scott Marr said. “And they’re a great team. Unfortunately, coming in the week after they lost in that ACC championship and I’m sure they had a pretty good week of practice. I love Dominic. He was a little kid when my son [Kyle] played at Hopkins for [Dave Pietramala]. I love his stroke and he shoots it a lot like my son.”

Ryan Doherty had two goals and an assist for the America East champion Great Danes (11-6), who were making their third consecutive tournament appearance.

Pietramala opened the scoring off a slick pass from Brevin Wilson just in front of the crease and completed his hat trick with 1.9 seconds left in the first quarter to make it 7-1.

For a time, it seemed the most historic goal of the day would be Pietramala’s sixth, in which he created separation coming from behind the cage to bump the lead to 11-1. That was the 129th of his career, moving past the Tar Heel mark Bert Fett set from 1972-75.

Soon enough, the single-game NCAA tournament came into view. He slung in a dart early in the third quarter, his eighth of the day. Then he finished off a Mason Szewczyk feed to bump the lead to 17-4.

It seemed his day might be finished, but he returned to the field for the start of the fourth quarter. He didn’t need to stay long, collecting a transition pass from long pole Peter Thomann and rocketing a low-to-high dart with 14:37 to go to wrap up the record.

“As we got closer to it and he was at nine, it was, ‘OK, let’s give him the opportunity,’” Breschi said. “But he’s such a team player and he has such great IQ that he gets himself in positions to make plays. When you’re shooting 10-for-16, that’s pretty damn good.”

It was little surprise to anyone who saw Duffy depart against Virginia that he would be unavailable for at least the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament. A more unpredictable variable was Breschi’s decision to make a change in goal at the start of the postseason.

Freshman Josh Marcus was a solid presence in the opening two months of the season, posting a .515 save percentage in the Tar Heels’ first 12 games. But he stopped just 35.4 percent of the shots on goal in his last four outings and was pulled in the first half against Virginia.

Goode took over and logged his most extensive work of the season, a superlative that didn’t last a week. He had played in 20 games for the Tar Heels and posted an admirable .580 save percentage, but never once started until Saturday.

“We have a saying on our team: ‘Prepare like a starter,’” Goode said. “That’s our mentality in our goalie room, and we have a supportive goalie room. … I think it was more exciting nerves because people were super-supportive of me and I think I was ready to go.”

Goode settled in after snaring an early shot from Silas Richmond, the America East’s offensive player of the year in back-to-back years who was held without a point on five shots while largely being marked by the Tar Heels’ Cole Aasheim. But truth be told, most of the action happened at the other end of the field.

It was a distinctly crisper Tar Heel team than the one that lost three of its last five as it navigated the bulk of conference play. And it started with an offense that was coming off scoring just six goals Sunday.

A dozen players found the net for North Carolina, and the Tar Heels scored 12 goals in both halves.

“We stepped in on Monday and we were ready to work, and there was a different energy involved with it,” Pietramala said. “I think with playoffs comes responsibility. You’re responsible to make it another week. Nothing is given; everything is earned. We just want more time with each other and we’re playing for six more days together, so I think when you have that kind of urgency, it takes care of itself.”

In addition to Pietramala’s double-digit production, North Carolina became just the fourth team to score 24 goals in an NCAA tournament game. The 18-goal margin is tied for the fourth largest in postseason history and was the most lopsided since Duke clubbed Fairfield 23-4 in the first round in 2005.

“We talked about playing loose, fast and free, and they did,” Breschi said. “That was fun to watch.”