Wolfpack in a shocker

RALEIGH

Battered and beleaguered N.C. State pulled itself off the Carter-Finley Stadium turf yesterday afternoon to knock off arch-rival North Carolina for the third consecutive season.

The Wolfpack, rallying behind a tenacious defense and the playmaking of quarterback Russell Wilson, and drawing inspiration from ailing offensive coordinator Dana Bible, won 28-27 and snapped the Tar Heels' four-game winning streak.

Wilson fired four touchdown passes, two in each half, behind the play calling of Coach Tom O'Brien, who took over Bible's role. The N.C. State defense, staggering after surrendering 319 points in the previous eight games, held UNC to a field goal after halftime.

The defense also stopped North Carolina on downs at the N.C. State 33-yard line with 10:14 left after N.C. State had gone ahead, and blocked a 38-yard field-goal attempt when lineman Alan-Michael Cash got a hand on the ball with 4:44 remaining.

O'Brien praised his team for hanging together after the Tar Heels forged a quick 10-0 lead, and for fighting back after trailing at halftime 24-14 after surrendering three touchdown drives of 45 seconds, 44 and 49.

"I have to give our kids a lot of credit," O'Brien said. "It was a great effort from a pretty well beat up football team to come back and be able to win that game in the second half. I think (responsibility goes) more to the seniors.

"This is the hardest year I've ever been through. You start off with the best football player on defense almost kills himself in the summer, and you end the year with your offensive coordinator in the hospital with cancer. We went through 16 or 17 season-ending injuries."

Bible missed the game because he is a patient at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, where he is undergoing treatment for leukemia. O'Brien will give him the game ball once Bible can receive visitors. O'Brien said he was going to call Bible last night.

Safety Clem Johnson said that the entire N.C. State team drew inspiration from Bible.

"Oh man, just the fight, because we understand he's in a tough situation," Johnson said. "He's fighting for his life, so we just kind of translate that to the football field. We knew it was going to be a four-quarter fight, and that's what we did."

While N.C. State (5-7, 2-6) forged ahead, UNC (8-4, 4-4) couldn't overcome its mistakes. Tailback Johnny White fumbled at the goal-line in the first quarter and N.C. State recovered in the end zone for a touchback. UNC committed three pass-interference penalties and two personal foul penalties, all of which either sustained N.C. State drives or short-circuited UNC possessions.

Davis said the loss was disappointing for his team, which didn't trail until there was 14:31 left.

"We didn't play very smart today," Davis said. "The penalties really hurt us. You can't have that many penalties, but especially on big plays like we did today.

We gave (N.C. State) other opportunities and took scores off the board for us."

UNC's six-point cushion came with 7:28 to play in the third quarter. N.C. State grabbed the lead when Wilson connected with Owen Spencer on a 38-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the fourth quarter.

Spencer, who had gotten past safety Da'Norris Searcy on the inside, caught the ball in stride at the 11 and scooted into the end zone.

"The coaches tell us to keep fighting," N.C. State's Wilson said. "You realize that when something gets taken away from you. Coach Bible means a lot to me personally. I'm always around him.

"In that situation, you realize how much this game means to you. You realize how much you put something into it. You realize how much you love the game and how blessed you are."

bcole@wsjournal.com.

North Carolina 3 21 3 0 -- 27


N.C. State 0 14 7 7 -- 28

First Quarter

UNC--FG Barth 31, 9:51.

Second Quarter

UNC--Boyd 35 pass from Yates (Barth kick), 14:53.

NCSU--Ja.Williams 6 pass from R.Wilson (Czajkowski kick), 10:12.

UNC--J.White 40 run (Barth kick), 9:28.

NCSU--Ja.Williams 14 pass from R.Wilson (Czajkowski kick), 4:33.

UNC--Boyd 70 pass from Yates (Barth kick), :46.

Third Quarter

NCSU--Spencer 56 pass from R.Wilson (Czajkowski kick), 10:23.

UNC--FG Barth 20, 7:28.

Fourth Quarter

NCSU--Spencer 38 pass from R.Wilson (Czajkowski kick), 14:31.

A--57,583.

TEAM STATISTICS

UNC NCSU

First downs 17 22

Rushes-yards 34-159 41-76

Passing 322 259

Comp-Att-Int 14-20-1 20-27-0

Return Yards 0 13

Punts-Avg. 4-41.0 7-35.6

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 3-0

Penalties-Yards 10-122 5-40

Time of Possession 28:25 31:35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING--North Carolina, J.White 7-83, Houston 17-58, Boyd 4-13, Little 2-5, Yates 4-0. N.C. State, Baker 17-62, Eugene 12-32, Team 1-(minus 2), R.Wilson 11-(minus 16).

PASSING--North Carolina, Yates 13-19-1-280, Houston 1-1-0-42. N.C. State, R.Wilson 20-27-0-259.

RECEIVING--North Carolina, Little 6-159, Houston 3-20, Boyd 2-105, Pianalto 2-34, Highsmith 1-4. N.C. State, Ja.Williams 7-50, Spencer 4-130, Eugene 4-18, Baker 3-43, Davis 2-18.