CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Freshman Khiry Shelton scored his first career goal early in the opening half, but an offensive barrage by No. 3 North Carolina (2-0-0, 0-0-0 ACC) in the final 45 minutes gave the Tar Heels a 5-1 victory over the Beavers at Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Friday evening.  The loss drops OSU to 0-2-0 on the season.

“In the first half I thought we did a better job of being accountable defensively,” Oregon State head coach Steve Simmons said.  “We did a better job of keeping possession so that we could take some pressure off our defense and we did well to get something out of the first half.  [After Khiry’s goal] and going into halftime we felt that things were looking up.”

Just over 17 minutes into the contest, Chris Harms played a deep ball into Shelton, who lifted it over the outstretched arms of UNC keeper Scott Goodwin from 12 yards out to put Oregon State on top, 1-0, and give the Beavers their first lead of the young season.

Neither team could break through the rest of the half thanks to some stellar play from both goalkeepers.  Not more than four minutes after Shelton’s goal, Emery Welshman fired a shot that was gobbled up by Goodwin to preserve the 1-0 score.  North Carolina ripped off eight shots in the first half, but a pair of saves from senior Steve Spangler gave the Beavers the lead heading into intermission.

The Tar Heels came out firing in the second half and scored a pair of quick goals to take a 2-1 lead in the 50th minute.  They ultimately grew their margin to 5-1 in the 75th minute on a goal by Mikey Lopez and would preserve the victory despite a number of late opportunities for the Beavers.

“You let a team like Carolina get into a groove [it becomes] very hard to play them at home,” Simmons said.  “We are certainly a good enough team to regroup and put together a much better performance.  We only played 45 minutes tonight unfortunately.”

In the 76th minute, Daniel Van Vleet rocketed a shot wide of the net and back-to-back balls put on goal by Brenden Anderson and Glenn Paden forced Goodwin to make some key saves to preserve the final score.

“We are good enough to compete against any team in the country,” Simmons said.  “And now this group can appreciate and understand it’s the full 90 minutes we have to do it for … Sometimes learning hurts, [but] we are going to have a lot more positives coming out of this than I think that we know.”

Following the relatively clean game that saw only four fouls whistled on each squad, the Beavers will return to action when they take on Wake Forest on Sunday evening at 4 p.m. in Winston-Salem, N.C. before heading back West for the remainder of the season.

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