Chapel Hill High School’s lacrosse team has earned some time off this week for the district’s spring break.

In Chapel Hill’s last game before entering into the break, Chapel Hill won 7-3 at Carrboro last Friday, keeping the Tigers in front by a slim margin in the NCHSAA Conference 5 race.

It was the seventh straight win for 3A Chapel Hill (7-1, 6-0 conference) after a season opening loss, 6-5, to 4A Durham Jordan, which is still undefeated at 10-0.

Carrboro (7-5, 4-3) previously fell at Chapel Hill 8-7, as close a win as the Tigers have had this year.

"This was a good win," CHHS coach Brent Voelkel said. "But we were missing some guys and they were missing some key guys who took off early for sprig break. We just did a better job shooting when we got offensive opportunities."

CHHS was without face-off specialist Ryan Hegedus, attackman Paul Whitford and defender Eddie Burgard; they were on class trips to Europe.

Carrboro likewise was missing two of the Triangle’s top scorers — seniors Alex Knapp and Will Clark. It didn’t help 2A Carrboro’s thin lineup of 17 regulars to lose two more for disciplinary reasons after they missed morning classes Friday.

"Our kids played their hearts out and did everything they could, but they were just out-gunned," Carrboro coach Chris Mann said. "It was disappointing."

Mann tried shifting midfielders like Keenan Van Name into the attack, but that disrupted Carrboro’s midfield and helped CHHS get control in the middle. The Tigers had a 35-31 edge in ground balls and ended up out-shooting Carrboro 30-15.

Carrboro goalkeeper James O’Grady came up big with 17 saves, to eight for Chapel Hill’s Corey Silfen, but that wasn’t enough to stymie the persistent Tigers.

Chapel Hill sophomore attackman Paul Miller finished with two goals and an assist to lead the scoring, and freshman Colin Mraz scored two goals. Junior Tim Duffy added a goal and an assist, while Stephen Winsor and sophomore Peter Norwood each added one goal. Junior Tommy Voelkel and sophomore Hank Bolon each provided an assist.

Sophomore Sam Parker led Carrboro’s scoring with two goals, and freshman Jack Newell had the other. Each had one score in the first half as Carrboro battled to hold CHHS to a 2-2 tie at the break.

"They were pretty tough, and we just weren’t clicking on offense in the fist half," Miller said. "The second half, we concentrated on moving the ball and not getting any turnovers. That helped us a lot.

"We knew this was a big game," Miller said. "We knew that if we lost this game then they’d be right back in the race, and we’d be tied with East."

’Cats hang tough

East Chapel Hill kept pace on the Tigers’ heels, at just one-half game back, with a pair of blowouts last week. Bouncing back from an 11-7, non-conference loss to No. 10-ranked and undefeated Durham Jordan on March 26, the Wildcats downed Northwood 19-1 on March 27 and then Orange by a 19-2 score last Friday.

That gave East Chapel Hill (7-4, 6-1) six wins in its last seven matches. The ’Cats only loss was 14-8 March 9 at Chapel Hill.

East Chapel Hill has been solid ever since getting defensive stalwart William McIntee back into the lineup in mid-march after an injury. The Wildcats have held Conference 5 opponents to 36 goals — including the 14 by CHHS — while East has scored 98. That’s a net margin of 8.86 goals in conference matches. By comparison, only three other North Carolina teams — each rated in the top five of the NCHSAA — has a better goals for-against ratio, and CHHS has a net margin of 6.83.

East Chapel Hill is off until it hosts Chapel Hill on April 13.