On Friday night, North Carolina's Verneri Valimaa netting a pair of goals to lead #9 North Carolina to a 2-0 win over Boston College. Valimaa scored in the 32nd and 90th minutes to ground the Eagles.
Via bceagles.com:
The Tar Heels connected in the 32nd minute to take a 1-0 lead. The ball went into the box and Walker Hume took a shot on net that junior Alex Kapp saved. The rebound went right to Valimaa who scored to put UNC on top.
BC only had one shot in the second half and it was not on target. Kapp made seven saves in goal and he made an important one three minutes into the second when Tyler Engel put a nice shot on goal that was stopped.
Kapp made another great save with 20 minutes left after a BC foul 23 yards out. Alex Olofson, Raby George and Omar Holness surrounded the ball for the free kick. Olofson tapped to George who set up Holness for a blast. The shot got through a sea of players but Kapp dove to his left to keep it a one goal game.
The Tar Heels sealed the win in the final minute when Craven and Valimaa connected for the second goal.
With the loss, Boston College's ACC Championship berth hopes are now on life support. Boston College (1-5-1 ACC) is currently two points behind N.C. State (1-3-3) for the 10th and final Championship seed with one match to play.
Here's the current league table:
Seed | Team | W | L | D | Pts | Remaining |
1 | c - Notre Dame | 5 | 1 | 1 | 16 | @ Pittsburgh |
2 | a - Syracuse | 4 | 2 | 1 | 13 | Boston College |
3 | North Carolina | 5 | 2 | 0 | 15 | Virginia |
t4 | Louisville | 4 | 2 | 1 | 13 | @ Wake Forest |
t4 | Clemson | 4 | 2 | 1 | 13 | N.C. State |
6 | Wake Forest | 4 | 3 | 0 | 12 | @ Louisville |
7 | Virginia | 3 | 3 | 1 | 10 | @ North Carolina |
8 | Duke | 3 | 4 | 0 | 9 | @ Virginia Tech |
9 | Virginia Tech | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | Duke |
10 | N.C. State | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | @ Clemson |
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Boston College | 1 | 5 | 1 | 4 | @ Syracuse | |
x - Pittsburgh | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | Notre Dame |
c - current Coastal Division leader
a - current Atlantic Division leader
x - eliminated
The two division champs from the Atlantic and Coastal will be seeded one and two based on overall number of points in conference play (three points for a win, one point for a draw). Teams three through 10 are seeded based on conference points standings without regard to divisions.
Here's the Championship bracket if the season ended today:
Wednesday, November 5
First Round, Campus Sites
Match 1: (9) Virginia Tech at (8) Duke
Match 2: (10) N.C. State at (7) Virginia
Sunday, November 9
Quarterfinals, Campus Sites
Match 3: Match 1 winner at (1) Notre Dame
Match 4: (5) Louisville / Clemson at (4) Louisville / Clemson
Match 5: (6) Wake Forest at (3) North Carolina
Match 6: Match 2 winner at (2) Syracuse
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Here are the ways that BC gets into the ACC Championship field:
The Eagles defeat Syracuse, and:
-- N.C. State loses to Clemson, or
-- N.C. State plays to a draw with Clemson and BC beats Syracuse by 7 (to get pass N.C. State on goal differential, currently Boston College -8 to N.C. State -2)
So, yeah. Probably not happening.
First up though, Boston College hosts Dartmouth on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in its final home match of the year. The team then travels to Syracuse on Friday to take on the Orange in the regular season finale. Regular season-ending games against Syracuse with BC's postseason fate hanging in the balance ... what could go wrong?
For more on the program, check out The Heights' Alex Fairchild's latest column following the UNC loss, and follow him on Twitter.