North Carolina finished unlikely title run with serendipitous victory

ByDANA O'NEIL
May 30, 2016, 7:37 PM

— -- PHILADELPHIA -- With his entire offense sputtering, if not entirely stuffed by the Hofstra defense, Dave Metzbower finally reached his boiling point after sophomore attackman Chris Cloutier failed to beat his shortstick defender for about the zillionth time.

"I yanked him," said Metzbower, the North Carolina assistant coach. "He was terrible."

That Cloutier became the record-holder for goals in an NCAA tournament game and then the Tar Heels' hero, scoring the overtime game-winner in a 14-13 national championship nail-biter over Maryland, really says everything about this North Carolina team.

The Tar Heels, the first unseeded team to win a national title in 43 years, defy a lot of things -- logic and the odds, for starters -- and they really don't care.

Never did after that Hofstra loss on Feb. 20.

Never have this entire season.

And that's really what defines them: a beautiful indifference that culminated in their first national championship in 25 years.

"Pressure is a funny thing," head coach Joe Breschi said. "We had zero pressure. We were picked the lowest we've ever been picked in the eight years since I've been here and last in the ACC, and these guys were on a mission."

The loose and even goofy Heels' mission seemed like a joyride compared to the forced march of the Terrapins. Though the players and coaching staff brushed off any talk of pressure, Maryland walked onto the Lincoln Financial Field cradling 41 years of dashed hopes in their sticks. The No. 1 seed in this NCAA tournament, the Terps breezed their way to the title game, allowing for that strange little flower called optimism to grow around the program again.

When North Carolina's Luke Goldstock was called for unsportsmanlike penalty -- he and Maryland defender Mike McCarney exchanged shoves with seconds left in regulation -- putting Goldstock in the box and the Terps up a man for overtime, it was hard not to actually feel the optimism grow in the place.

But Maryland was snuffed on its best chance, as Connor Kelly's shot from wide was stopped by North Carolina goalie Brian Balkam.

Minutes later, in a mad scrum in front of the Terps' goal, McCarney -- who wasn't whistled for a penalty despite shoving Goldstock earlier -- was hit with a one-minute trip to the box for a slash.

Can you sense foreboding? You could certainly hear it, the groans borne out of years of dashed dreams coming even in the impartial press box.

Twenty-four seconds later, foreboding gave way to reality, a cold splash of water for Maryland and a warm embrace for Carolina as Cloutier zinged his shot from the right and into the back of the net.

Cloutier, who scored the same number of goals (19) in his last four NCAA games as he did in the previous 14 games combined, stood paralyzed for a second, unsure of what to do. Despite that hook back in February, Metzbower never gave up on the Canadian sophomore, and Cloutier did his part to improve, the player his head coach lovingly refers to as a "load," losing some weight and working on his game.

"Coach Metz told me he'd have my back," Cloutier said. "He did. He never gave up on me, and I'll never forget him for that."

Cloutier's confidence, in fact, has soared so much that five of his best buddies hopped in a car on Sunday night, driving overnight for 11 hours from Kitchener, Ontario, sure their BFF would win. They were in the stands as Cloutier shook off momentary daze and joined his teammates in a mad dash of celebration in front of their fan section.

Later, after the trophy presentation and the chaos subsided, players dropped onto the ground and made turf angels, while others walked around shouting, almost in disbelief, "We're the champions of the world." When it was time to cut the net from the goal, they made like naughty kindergartners, a pack college-aged kids running with scissors to start snipping their piece of history.

Breschi, left to do interviews, hadn't had time to get to the net, so he sent one of his four daughters to fetch him a piece. She returned with one snippet, but he sent her back for more, telling her to keep one for herself. Meanwhile, his oldest daughter, Samantha, walked over, lugging the national championship trophy, flip-flops flapping and grin spreading across her face.

"We're national champions," Breschi said. "Can you believe it?"

Maryland fans probably could.

Amid the detritus of Carolina shoulder pads, helmets and sticks -- all tossed in giddy celebration after Cloutier's goal -- Maryland players quite literally hunched over as if in pain, gut-punched again in their quest for a national title. Some fell to the ground at the spot they were standing, others grieved communally behind the net; sophomore midfielder Will Bonaparte tucked himself into the goal in child's pose, his head to the ground, alone with his thoughts.

Along with collecting miles as they rolled down the interstate and back to College Park, the Terrapins inched into their fifth decade without a title, losing nine times and every way possible in championship games since their last title in 1975. If it's possible to make the sting even more painful for Maryland fans and alums, this was supposed to be the year that the Terps celebrated a double-whammy of lacrosse success. Instead, they got the double-barrel of misery, their previously undefeated women's team losing Sunday in the national title game.

The winners? North Carolina, making UNC the first school since Princeton in 1994 to win both the men's and women's titles.

"We've got to take care of each other," said Maryland coach John Tillman, himself winless in four tries as Maryland's head coach. "We've got a lot of guys who are hurt, and they're looking to me. As any parent knows, there are times you just want to make it better and you can't. You can't make it better."

Breschi knows of such helplessness. A year ago, he watched his team's dreams dashed when the third-seeded Tar Heels lost to Maryland in the quarterfinals. He met with a sports psychologist afterward, sharing Dr. Bradley Hack's message that winning is as much about believing as doing.

The coach's belief is strong, belief not only in the message of family, academics and lacrosse that he preaches to his players, but also belief that life moves on no matter how bad things may appear. He has been where no parent wants to go, to the funeral of his child 12 years ago. In 2004, when Breschi was head coach at Ohio State, his 3-year-old son, Michael, was killed in the parking lot of his daycare center. Last weekend, the Tar Heels played their quarterfinal games in Columbus, the players dedicating the games to Michael Breschi.

The players said then and reiterated on Monday that their coach has been their inspiration, but the coach has received just as much as he's given. He is the father of four girls -- and now, 46 boys.

On Saturday night, Breschi said he went to bed trying to figure out which way to go with his pregame speech. Should he go Vince Lombardi or Knute Rockne? At 3:30 in the morning, he came wide awake in his hotel room, the television still on. Staring back at him was the face of Ray Lewis.

Breschi was born and raised in Baltimore and is a die-hard Ravens fan. As Lewis talked about the team's 2000 run from wild-card entrant to Super Bowl champion, of their unexpected march through Denver, Tennessee, Oakland eventually the New York Giants, Breschi clicked off his television, comfortable in the message he'd deliver to his team.

"They kicked the door down in the Super Bowl," Breschi told his team, "and I said, 'That's going to be you today.'"

The message defied logic and defied the odds.

It also defined the Tar Heels.