Cal Poly Men's Soccer Falls at No. 8 North Carolina in Season Opener

Friday, August 26

Chapel Hill, NC

4:30 pm

1-0

No. 8 North Carolina

0-1

Cal Poly

North Carolina

Cal Poly Men's Soccer Falls at No. 8 North Carolina in Season Opener

8/26/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Sophomore goalkeeper Simon Boehme (above) chalked up five saves in his first career appearance, but the Cal Poly men's soccer program conceded two first-half goals to No. 8 North Carolina and a second-half penalty and dropped a 3-0 decision at Fetzer Field.

Senior midfielder Ruben Duran and freshman forward Sebastian Herran led Cal Poly with two shot attempts, but North Carolina – the highest ranked opponent Cal Poly had ever faced in a season opener – outshot the Mustangs 17-6 and placed eight of its attempts on target.

In the first meeting between the two programs, Boehme was called into action just 92 seconds after kickoff to make a save off the boot of forward Nils Bruening.

Cal Poly, however, found itself down 1-0 after just eight minutes as Tar Heels midfielder Nico Melo snuck down the right end line to find forward Alan Winn in front of goal. Winn fired into the roof of the Mustang net to provide North Carolina the only lead of the evening.

North Carolina doubled its lead on 38 minutes with midfielder Jeremy Kelly playing a ball into the penalty area for forward Tucker Hume, who turned his Mustang defender and fired past Boehme.

Overall, the Tar Heels placed four of their opening seven shot attempts on target with Boehme also recording a 13th-minute save.

Pinned into its own end for a majority of the first half, Cal Poly was held without a shot attempt until senior midfielder Ruben Duran fired wide of the right post in the 48th minute. Junior defender Tony Scimeca immediately followed with the second attempt for Cal Poly, heading down a Duran corner kick that was scooped up by Tar Heels goalkeeper James Pyle.

Three minutes later, however, Scimeca was judged to have impeded the dribbling progress of Tar Heels midfielder David October inside the penalty area. October stepped to the spot and buried his penalty attempt to place North Carolina up 3-0.

Cal Poly's best attempt to break through on Pyle occurred during the 86th minute when freshman defender Eddie Melgoza struck the North Carolina crossbar on a free kick from 30 yards.

Boehme recorded three more saves during the second half to keep the scoreline at 3-0.

Cal Poly's season-opening, four-game road trip continues on Sunday, Aug. 28 at No. 5 Wake Forest.