The UNC-Chapel Hill squad put on a repeat performance of their 2010 ACC Tournament match-up with yet another 4-0 thumping of N.C . State in the quarterfinals on Tuesday at Carolina’s home, Fetzer Field.

Coach Kelly Findley drew some optimistic lessons from his team’s performance despite rearing the same result against Carolina as his predecessor George Tarantini .

“We’ve got a lot of young guys playing, I think that’s a positive,” Findley said. “You look at the shots, 14-9; I don’t think it was a 4-0 game.”

The first half was characterized by defensive blunders by State in what was an otherwise equal showing between the two sides. Carolina’s Jordan Gafa drew first blood in the 13th minute after taking down a free kick in the penalty area with a service from Kirk Urso .

The Tar Heels struck again 20 minutes later when Matt Hedges put in a header off of a service from Enzo Martinez. The end of the first half was marked by a pretentious clearance by Tar Heel Josh Rice, who kicked the ball over the nearby trees and out of the park in an arrogant showing of their 2-0 domination.

Findley was not satisfied with the Pack’s performance on restarts after deadball situations.

“Both goals in the first half were from restarts,” Findley said. “It’s one thing to get beat in the flow of play but everything is equal in a restart and we can’t let that happen.”

The tables turned when Carolina came out in the second half full of confidence and with guns blazing, adding eight shots to their total 14 of the game. Within the first five minutes, the Tar Heels had doubled their score with a header from Mikey Lopez and an unanswered run straight down the middle of the field by Carlos McCrary .

Findley described the defensive lapse at the beginning of the second half as a failure to properly mark-up on defense.

“We talked about tracking players and we didn’t track players,” Findley said, “so we gave up a soft goal in the first five minutes.”

Sophomore midfielder Nazmi Albadawi , who had been marked and effectively contained for the entire first half, finally got his first and only opportunity to put a shot on goal just outside of the 18-yard box but his shot went straight into the hands of Tar Heel keeper Scott Goodwin. Albadawi congratulated the Heels for their concrete performance on defense but ultimately blamed himself for his lack of contribution to the team’s shot output.

“Carolina is always a solid team but I feel like I could have shot the ball more,” Albadawi said. “That’s on me. They had a second defender there, every time. Once I got by the first one there was another one there to close me down really quickly.”

Perhaps the best chance of the game for the Pack came in the 63rd minute with a header by sophomore midfielder Jorge Risquez, which bounced mere yards by the far post after a cross by freshman midfielder Ollie Kelly found him inside the penalty area.

The Heels, by no means satisfied with their four-goal lead, continued to bombard the Wolfpack defense but were unable to put anymore on the net, ending the game at 4-0.

Senior midfielder Watt Williams, in the wake of the final game of his college career, had a bittersweet taste in his mouth when recollecting the match.

“It’s tough losing when I’m a senior here and it’s the last game I’ll ever play,” Williams said. “At the end, I’m really happy with the way things went this year and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of this team.”

Williams attributed the fact that his team was being outpaced by Carolina to the game the day before against Virginia Tech.

“Being in the eight-nine [seed] game really cost us this year,” Williams said. “Our legs weren’t quite as fresh as theirs were. I think that really made a difference in the couple inches that it took to get in front of us and get quality chances.”

Findley believes that, despite the loss, this result means very little in the grand scheme of things and is just the beginning of a serious transition period.

“We need some experience,” Findley said. “We’re new coaches, as well, so it’s a new system to the guys.

“To be honest, we’re asking different things of players. Soccer’s a difficult game because you have to make quick decisions. Overall, we’re asking a lot of them and I don’t know if they were the same questions that were asked before we got here.”

Williams, on his way out, feels that his teammates are left in good hands with Findley and his staff.

“I can’t say enough great things about George Tarantini and the program that he ran but this program, now, is going places,” Williams said. “It doesn’t happen overnight. I think these coaches, in five years, they’ll be at the top of the ACC year-in and year-out. I think the program is going in a great direction and things are only going up from here.”