CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Warren Hill dragged the ball out from the back of the goal with his stick and flipped it up and into his hand.

Forty-six seconds had elapsed since the beginning of the second half. And just a few minutes had gone by since Syracuse’s backup goalkeeper was taken aback when he heard he’d be replacing Bobby Wardwell.

“I was like, ‘All right, yep,’” the soft-spoken Hill said, recounting the moment of hearing that news when he walked into the locker room at halftime.

After the starting goalkeeper Wardwell allowed 10 of the 13 shots he faced on goal to get past him, SU head coach John Desko decided he wanted to change things up. Hill made five saves on 12 opportunities, but had trouble assisting in the SU clears. The combined effort led to a 17-15 loss for No. 2 Syracuse (8-2, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) to No. 4 North Carolina (12-1, 3-0) at Fetzer Field on Saturday afternoon.

When asked if he would reconsider the goalkeeper situation ahead of SU’s home game on Tuesday against Hobart, Desko said he planned to look at it.

“I just wanted a change to get a spark since they were scoring so easily,” Desko said. “That was a little tough since we’d won so many faceoffs early. We missed all our shots, they made their shots and we didn’t have too many saves out of Bob.”

The scoring started four minutes in when Shane Simpson came from around the goal and whipped a shot past Wardwell, who tried to close the five-hole as the ball whipped past him to the right. Wardwell was still looking to the sun when Chad Tutton zipped an underhand sweeper past him as he fell to his knees. Tutton then ripped a shot over Wardwell’s stick four minutes after that to open up the three-goal lead.

Desko said he wasn’t sure that the sun had much to do with it, though, since graduate assistant Dominic Lamolinara noted to him that Wardwell was moving in the right direction — just not making the play.

“We almost hit every shot in the first quarter,” said UNC attack Luke Goldstock, who finished with four goals. “I think our coach put together a really good scout on where the goalie was weak, and I think this is the first game where we followed it 100 percent. I don’t think we put any near his stick.”

Goldstock lit up Hill to start the second half with three goals in the first 6:20 of the third quarter. Hill made some nice saves late in the game — including one on a point-blank attempt that tipped off the stick.

But he also struggled with clearing the ball. After he threw a pass that Brandon Mullins couldn’t handle, Mullins was trucked and UNC picked up the ball. Hill had never gotten back into his goal and Joey Sankey plopped in an empty-netter to stop a 4-1 SU run and give the Tar Heels a 16-11 lead with just under 10 minutes to play.

Wardwell came back in for Hill with 1:52 to play because Desko wanted a goalkeeper that could run its red dog defense — a concept that involves one defender and the goalie pressuring the ball handler.

Even with the late switch, Hill was the lesser of two evils facing a North Carolina team that at times scored at will. Hill did well in the fourth to keep SU afloat, helping to negate a 17-shot quarter, as the Orange outscored the Tar Heels 6-3.

Desko acknowledged that Hill played well. But Hill knew that he didn’t do enough.

“My clearing could have been a lot better today and communication,” he said. “And I could have obviously just stopped the ball.”

Published on April 11, 2015 at 8:30 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3