Third-Quarter Blitz Leads Richmond to First-Ever NCAA Tournament Win

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Richmond at times seemed stagnant and physically overwhelmed in the first 30 minutes of its NCAA tournament first-round game at North Carolina on Saturday.

It was never, ever finished, though, securing the first postseason victory in program history with a 13-10 triumph over the eighth-seeded Tar Heels before 1,967 at Dorrance Field.

Lucas Littlejohn scored four goals and Gavin Greo and Max Merklinger both had two goals and an assist for the Spiders (14-3), who will meet either top-seeded Cornell or UAlbany in the program’s first quarterfinal appearance next Saturday in Hempstead, N.Y., on the campus of Hofstra University.

Richmond had lost a play-in game in 2014, its first season, and had dropped four first-round games to No. 2 and No. 3 seeds since then, including an overtime setback at Penn in 2022.

This time, the Spiders burst into the second weekend of the tournament by scoring 11 goals on 19 second-half shots.

“It's really special, and hopefully it shows other programs out there to stay the course and anything can happen,” said Dan Chemotti, Richmond’s coach since the program was established.

Owen Duffy had three goals and two assists for the Tar Heels (10-5), who dropped three of their final four games.

It wasn’t the outcome North Carolina seemed headed for when it built a 4-0 lead, a push the Spiders couldn’t muster a semblance of an answer for. The Spiders went 16:28 without a shot during a stretch of the first half, and the Tar Heels controlled possession for much of the half. When Richmond did get the ball, it found itself standing around rather than applying pressure far too often.

Yet the Spiders managed to get within 5-2 at the break, not ideal but far from an impossible situation. Between Lukas Olsson beating a short stick, Littlejohn scoring off a quick restart after the Tar Heels went out of bounds and Littlejohn finishing a Henry Alpaugh feed, Richmond needed less than three minutes to tie it after halftime.

“We knew as a group it was bound to happen,” Littlejohn said. “We knew we didn’t have the best half and we were still only down by three goals, so we knew it was our time.”

North Carolina coach Joe Breschi called timeout, acknowledging later his team was taken aback that 30 minutes of relative dominance had been wiped out so quickly. Still, the Tar Heels had enough offense to avoid giving up the lead even as Richmond piled up seven goals in the third quarter.

The last of those came on Merklinger’s 25-yarder with 2.6 seconds remaining, a chance Carolina goalie Michael Gianforcaro (10 saves) immediately wanted back.

“Sometimes you get a good bounce,” Merklinger said.

The Tar Heels reclaimed the lead when Dominic Pietramala completed a hat trick for his 48th goal of the season — two shy of Luke Goldstock’s program record set in 2019 — before Littlejohn tied it 38 seconds later.

After North Carolina stymied Richmond’s lone extra-man chance of the day, Creo ran on for man-up specialist Leo Caine and soon found Olsson to put the Spiders up for the first time at 11-10. Daniel Picart delivered an insurance goal with 4:17 to go, and Creo outran a double team for 16 seconds out of a timeout before tossing one into an empty net to seal it with 1:41 remaining.

“One thing all coaches [we talked to] have said is, ‘They have no cracks,’” Breschi said. “They are solid everywhere, and that’s a sign of a really good team.”

There are a few ways to view North Carolina’s season, the Tar Heels’ first to culminate with an NCAA tournament berth since 2021. They shared an ACC regular-season title and stitched together a defense that was inexperienced on paper but had far more good days than bad.

But as was evident Saturday, it was a team still trying to figure some things out, even in May.

“This is their third NCAA tournament [in four years], and this is the first for this group outside of three transfers,” Breschi said. “It’s new, and they certainly played like they’ve been here. They didn’t waver.”

It was an apt way for Richmond to move on. The Spiders have fine players scattered across the roster — attackman Aidan O’Neil and defenseman Hunter Smith are their best-known names — but it is a team built on depth.

The trait especially apparent when Charlie Packard scored his second and third goals of the season within 39 seconds in the third quarter. Packard played defensive midfield much of the season, shifting back to offense when Ryan Thompson got back from injury.

Those sorts of options are what Chemotti always wanted to have as he set to work with his start up more than a decade ago. Just after the final seconds elapsed, he shared an embrace with defensive coordinator Paul Richards, a Spiders assistant for all 12 of their seasons.

It was easy to appreciate where it started, and even easier to feel elation on where Richmond is going for the first time.

“Coach Richards and I have done this together for the longest time, [since] when there was nothing,” Chemotti said. “I remember even in year one, taking my wife to Dick’s to buy balls because we were over budget and couldn’t afford balls anymore. Her and I went and spent our own money on lacrosse balls. To watch this program grow from nothing to what it is today, it honestly has everything to do with the people that have surrounded this program.”