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NCAA MENâ€™S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP

May 28, 2016

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

North Carolina - 18, Loyola 13

THE MODERATOR: Joined by head coach Joe Breschi and Steve Pontrello and Chris Cloutier and Tim Kelly.

COACH BRESCHI: First and foremost so proud of our team the way we came out. We had terrific energy. Obviously jumped on them early. Not overly thrilled with how we finished the game but credit Loyola for obviously a great season. But a terrific effort as well. Overall we talked about ground balls. We won the ground ball battle. I was happy with the way we cleared it. These guys just shared the ball at the offensive end. Chris Cloutier had a stellar day obviously, but it was his teammates that allowed him to have the day he did.

I thought defensively we did a nice job specifically in the first half. And just overall between the lines just picking up ground balls and scrapping as hard as we did. These guys played with great emotion, played for one another and now they're playing on Monday.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players.

Q. Chris, talk about your nine-goal performance?
CHRIS CLOUTIER: Started out early. Started with these guys, especially Steve who really taught me, him and Luke, I made the transition from middy, and him and Luke taught me all year really teaching me the ways of attack. And today it was just working today.

We were running our offense to a T. And luckily I was just getting open and getting open shots that I was able to put in the back of the net.

Q. Chris, do you remember a time when it was flowing that easily for you? Seemed like every time you turned around the ball was in the back of the net. Was it you just being in the right place at the right time or what was specifically different about today?
CHRIS CLOUTIER: There's no real specific time. It's just -- I mean, it's just -- it seems like whenever I get my hands free, someone finds me, someone found me and it was just working out.

Q. Chris, when you hear your name now linked with the likes of Gary Gait, what crosses your mind? And for your teammates, what does it feel like for you guys when that thought crosses your mind that you helped to link Chris to a guy like Gary Gait?
CHRIS CLOUTIER: I wouldn't put myself in that category, but it's truly an honor. It's like Coach said, I owe everything to these guys. I was just getting open, just got really open shots. And it's an honor when I hear things like that.

STEVE PONTRELLO: We just kept running our offense. Like Coach said, he had a stellar day. Every time he got the ball I thought he was going to score. Happy to have him on my attack unit.

TIM KELLY: Yes, give him the ball, he scores. Pretty easy for us.

Q. Steve and Chris, two parts here. One, just the fact that you guys kept winning faceoffs, kept generating transition off that, how significant was that; and was that as well as the offense has flowed for you guys in any 15-minute period that you can remember?
STEVE PONTRELLO: Yes, Bones did a great job at the X. Even if he didn't win the clamp, he was fighting to get the ball back. In the beginning we were just going on that run. And faceoff is very huge for us. When he keeps winning, we're getting our roll, we just want to keep that going.

CHRIS CLOUTIER: Going off what Steve said, I remember just thinking in the game we're very lucky to have Bones. Actually thought this to myself in the game: Faceoffs go the other way, then the game goes completely the other way. He's a huge, huge part of our team.

TIM KELLY: Having a good faceoff guy is definitely helpful. And we benefited from that today.

Q. He's your cousin. Do you teach him everything he knows?
TIM KELLY: Something like that.

Q. Steve, can you talk about, this game is so different from last week's game; you guys controlled the games relatively early, but getting out that quickly, that far ahead, what did that feel like, just in terms of you're obviously happy, but did it surprise you? That you could just put that much of a hole, put them in that big of a hole that quickly.
STEVE PONTRELLO: Doesn't surprise me. I think with this offense sharing the ball with a guy like Stephen Kelly at the faceoff X -- UNC is known to get on a roll. And especially this year we can score in bunches like we did in the Notre Dame game, scoring eight straight in the last fourth quarter. So I'm not too surprised by it, but it's great to get that feeling and jump on your opponent.

Q. When you're scoring goals and winning faceoffs and scoring goals how much exponentially easier does it get when you're building that lead to just kind of keep the ball rolling downhill?
STEVE PONTRELLO: It's awesome. Gives our defense a break, rest throughout the game if we just keep putting the pressure on the defense. Our defense gets healthy, gets a rest. That's humongous. We always want to start off with a fast start. Bones definitely did that today. We just want him to take the next one, even if we do jump off with the lead, to stay the course. It's a long game.

Q. Steve, you scored the final goal of the game. Loyola was coming back a little bit. What was going through your head then? Can you take us through that?
STEVE PONTRELLO: They were definitely trying to double the ball all over the field. And I know when I got out of the X, I thought I could run by that guy, and then the help guy came, and I thought I could run by him, too. I just shot it lefty coming around and wanted to put another one back in that.

Q. Timmy, you're in a class that is one of many that Coach Breschi has brought in in his time there since becoming the head coach of highly touted recruit. Can you talk about the culture or maybe the system that Coach has put in place to help you as a freshman already developed and get on the field and make big contributions. And maybe speak about some of the other players around you that you're seeing the same sort of thing for?
TIM KELLY: Definitely. Coach Breschi really just teaches a culture for others. He's not teaching you to be individualistic, which helps. Then on top of having good captains, Jake Matthai, Austin Pifani, Patrick Kelly, Mark Rizzo, those four guys created this culture of you're not a freshman, you're an equal, which has really benefited me and Rowlett and it kind of put a lot of confidence on us.

CHRIS CLOUTIER: Yeah, I just wanted to mention something: As a freshman last year, obviously I'm from Canada. And I didn't get the opportunity to go home over October break. And one thing that will always stick with me and one of the biggest things I love about Coach Breschi was he immediately invited me to his house for Thanksgiving dinner. Actually, my mom figured out a way for me to get home, but that's just a huge thing to really help out with what's going on.

Q. Chris and Steve, can you talk about just when there's a sense with this team that it's pointed in the right direction and we're going to stay going in that direction, the zigzagging became what it is now, and just what it feels like to breathe in and we're playing for the national friggin' championship on Monday.
STEVE PONTRELLO: We listen to our coaches, do a tremendous job preparing for us. And we step on that field; we're always prepared. We have tremendous confidence. We believe in one another. Not many people thought we had a shot today or even get to the Final Four. But this team is special.

CHRIS CLOUTIER: Yes. One person I really want to credit to like a lot of that is Austin Pifani. He's consistently, throughout the entire game, in our ear saying: Still 0-0, 0-0, reminding everyone that the game is never over. And that really helps with us.

Q. Steve, when you see the defense, Loyola's defense being kind of indecisive early there, what goes through your guys' head when you're out there on the field, trying to find open looks and that sort of thing?
STEVE PONTRELLO: Whether they're hedging or slotting you just want to move the ball fast and have great spacing. I think we had them spin all over the place, turn the corner, skip passes and Clooch finishing up the shot. That was our game plan going in. Share the ball, not one guy individually. And we got good looks from it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. When you drop nine goals on somebody in the first quarter, are you a little like. -- could you see your team having that in them? And was that in a year that's been so up and down as much of a peak as there's been for you guys all season?
COACH BRESCHI: If you look at last week I think we had a pretty darned good first half last week. The energy that's in the locker room, and it was the same way last week at Ohio State, when we played Notre Dame is before the game I've never seen it with that much energy in the locker room and then again at halftime.

And usually at halftime they're kind of recovering and regrouping, but they were jumping off the walls last week and again today. They know they're in a great spot.

I continue to talk about there's no pressure on these guys. None. There's been a lot of pressure on the entire program and previous teams. But nobody expected -- we barely got in the tournament, eight minutes to go in the first Notre Dame game we may not be here.

So it was almost a relief that we got in. And now we have an opportunity to just let our hair down and play. And that's what these guys are doing, and. I have great coaches. Coach Feifs, defensive end, and Coach Metz, offensively, are doing a fabulous of job building their confidence every day so they can go out and compete.

But a 9-2-lead, we know on the flipside, scoring eight goals in the fourth quarter in our first Notre Dame game, how important it is to play 60 minutes. So we always could look at that from the other side and say: Hey, gotta keep playing, gotta finish the game. We didn't do a great job of that. These guys have a ton of confidence. They feel like they can make a play every time they are on the field.

Q. Could you elaborate on what Steve was saying there, moving the ball offensively and sort of the game plan going in against this Loyola, this great Loyola defense?
COACH BRESCHI: One thing we don't do, is we don't make a lot of changes. We make some tweaks here and there. And two main games and so forth. But it has been since our early woes at 3 and 3 that, where everybody was looking over their shoulder, looking for somebody to make a play and some of those guys had graduated.

So we understand that we are at our best when all six have to make plays. And once they figure that out, once the light bulb went on there, it's been a new team. So offensively when you look at some of the output offensively that we've had early in the season, it's a lot different now.

And they're going up against some really good defenses and we're getting quality shots. That's one thing we focused on in this particular game was we know how hot the goalie, freshman goalie is. So we wanted to get to the middle of the field. So Cloutier sometimes would get the goal line extended and he can score those but we told him to take the extra step to the front of the cage and get quality shots so we don't get the goalie hot.

So it takes a village down at the offensive end as well as the defensive end.

Q. You ended the one drought, the Final Four drought. What about the opportunity to end the championship drought that dates back to '91?
COACH BRESCHI: I'm just thrilled that we're playing on Monday and during that same time having an opportunity to celebrate the '91 team at halftime.

So the stars aligned at the right time and it's a credit to the young men in the locker room who made it happen. I tell them all the time, look, it's not about the Xs and Os, we can only do what we do by putting you in the best position for success. But you have to go out and make a play. And to be able to celebrate it with the '91 team on Monday, couldn't be any better.

Q. You mentioned the '91 team being kind of a part of this weekend, and how helpful have they been to your guys and how kind of receptive have your guys been to them in terms of this weekend and 25 years, seems like sort of the perfect fit?
COACH BRESCHI: Well, obviously this win, this run is for the alumni and friends of the program, for all those who have believed in us. I'm so proud of the coaching staff for sticking to the philosophy and approach that we've had for the last eight years. And to be able to have those discussions with the alums and those guys to reach out to our players is fantastic. But honestly there wasn't a lot of talk until we got to the Final Four because we had been so close for so long for several times.

So to have an opportunity to finally break through and then it exploded with all the ways to communicate, Twitter and Instagram and all those fabulous things now. I like e-mails and phone calls.

Q. Can you talk more about Chris, the background, how that happens on a stage like this. He's obviously a good player. He's had great moments this year. But did you see that when you were sizing up matchups; and of course also talk just about your team speed and how that looked like it just shocked Loyola?
COACH BRESCHI: I think we're pretty fast in the middle of the field. We notice that -- and sometimes in those first matchups they've had, I know they played a couple of teams twice in the first matchups, they may have struggled a little bit first time against Duke.

So I love us between the lines, do a great job off the ground. We move the ball quickly. Chris Cloutier, you know, he does that in practice and we've been pushing and pushing. He mentioned how he was a midfielder a year ago.

Nobody talks about Pontrello being a middy for three years until this year. And I think that was part of the offense. I think the question was about the offense, too. We moved two guys from midfield to attack and they had to learn on the fly.

I think part of the early woes was looking for guys to make plays and Chris Cloutier continues to improve. And again he's a load when he turns the corner, and he'll run through you. At times it's not pretty. But at times we're not pretty.

But these guys continue to share the ball we're at our best for sure.

Q. I was going to ask you, thinking of the Notre Dame game and the comeback that you guys had against Irish, did you find the need to even remind your players -- a couple of the guys up there mentioned that their own teammates were focused -- I don't know if you and your assistant coaches had to say anything much at halftime to keep them focused. I know you want to keep it on the players. But on a personal note how does it feel for you to be on the cusp of your first national championship as a coach?
COACH BRESCHI: Well, first and foremost, we talk about 60-minute game all the time in the locker room. We really focused on what we needed to do continue to do offensively and defensively as well. We made some adjustments. Played some different guys, tried to play more guys.

We didn't anticipate struggling at the faceoff X in the second half. I thought Stephen was a warrior because he didn't win many of the clamps.

But our wing play was very good and he continued to scrap. He also generated some transition opportunities for us. Had two assists on the day, which was great.

You know, as for playing for a national championship, this is all the young men in the locker room. As I mentioned, it's not about me. It's not about the staff. It's about the young men who really have poured their hearts and soul into the season and are clearly playing for each other in a greater cause. And it's just fun to watch. And basically I'm along for the ride, which is pretty cool.

Q. I noticed you smiling as Chris, who just set a school record for goals in a game, was deflecting credit to his teammates, a captain talking about you inviting him over for Thanksgiving. What does it mean when you hear that guy say something like that after a game like this in terms of the values and the culture you're trying to instill on campus?
COACH BRESCHI: That's what I mean by I'm glad we did it the way we did it. It may have taken a little bit longer than I hoped.

But it's all about the kids and all about relationships and the people. If I have an opportunity to make a small impact on 18- to 22-year-olds in the time they're with me, that's my goal. And to learn some life lessons in the process and to enjoy an experience like this that they will never forget, because tomorrow is never guaranteed. And I know that personally.

So to hear that and to hear how much that meant to him, you know, just chose to feel that. But that's who these guys are, and that's the culture we have and it's a family. A lot of people talk about family and these guys live it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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