Clemson Draws Even With North Carolina in Overtime 3-3

By Zach Wagner

The Clemson Men’s Soccer Team concluded its home portion of its schedule at Historic Riggs Field on Tuesday night, drawing even with the North Carolina Tar Heels in double overtime, 3-3. The Tigers improve their record to 5-1-1 on the shortened COVID season, and will conclude their Fall 2020 season on Friday at Wake Forest. 

The Tigers outshot the Tar Heels in the match, 12-10. The big difference came in shots on goal, where Clemson outpaced North Carolina 8-4 in balls on target. The Orange and White also had multiple scoring chances, including two eventual goals called back due to offsides calls by the side linesman. 

After a scoreless first half, both offenses found fire in the last 45 minutes of play, before cooling off once again in the two 10-minute overtime periods. 

Kimarni Smith scored two second half goals, just 36 seconds apart. The first goal for the senior captain came off a free kick just outside the 18-yard box. After the ensuing kick off, Smith stole the ball back and weaved in and out of the Tar Heel defense, slotting the ball just past the keeper. Clemson took a 2-0 lead at the 58-minute mark of the match.

North Carolina drew even off of two goals, just six minutes apart. 

With the match even at 2-2 in the 78th minute, a perfect thru-ball on the Clemson counter attack found Grayson Barber from Callum Johnson. Barber found the back of the net to give the Tigers the lead back with 12 minutes remaining in the top five match-up. 

North Carolina drew even with under 2-minutes remaining in the match to force a golden-goal overtime period.

Neither team could take advantage of multiple scoring opportunities in the overtime period and after 20 minutes, the match concluded as a draw. 

The third ranked Clemson (5-1-1) team will travel to Winston-Salem on Friday night to take on the first ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons to conclude the Tigers 2020 Fall season. 

Photos shot by Makenna Biehl: