Drake Maye threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Antoine Green on third down with 16 seconds left as North Carolina pulled out a wild 38-35 victory against host Duke on Saturday night in Durham, N.C.
The winning play came at the end of a nine-play, 74-yard drive that included a fourth-and-5 conversion. Green barely had a foot inbounds in the end zone on the last play of the march.
Maye threw for three touchdowns and 380 yards on 28-for-38 passing. Elijah Green scored two third-quarter touchdowns as North Carolina (6-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) recovered from a double-digit hole.
However, Duke erased a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit in an attempt to reclaim the Victory Bell. Instead, North Carolina has won four straight in the series.
Duke quarterback Riley Leonard ran for a touchdown and threw for a touchdown, but he had a last-chance pass intercepted by Will Hardy. He gained 106 of his 130 rushing yards in the first half and threw for 245 yards.
The Blue Devils (4-3, 1-2) went ahead when Jordan Waters ran 38 yards for a touchdown with 10:12 remaining.
Duke had a chance to extend its lead, but a touchdown was wiped off because of a penalty and then Charlie Ham missed on a 43-yard field goal attempt. That gave the Tar Heels the ball with 2:09 left to begin their winning drive.
It was an eventful second half.
North Carolina went 86 yards on its first second-half possession, with Elijah Green’s 1-yard run putting it back ahead. He later scored on a 20-yard run to push the Tar Heels up 31-21. A chance to pad the lead later in the third quarter went for naught with a missed field goal.
In the first minute of the fourth quarter, Leonard’s 20-yard hookup with Sahmir Hagans tightened the margin.
North Carolina held a 10-7 lead through the first quarter thanks to Noah Burnette’s 45-yard field goal and Maye’s 10-yard pass to Kamari Morales sandwiched around a 2-yard touchdown run for Duke’s Waters.
The Blue Devils moved ahead on Leonard’s 74-yard touchdown run.
Duke went up 21-10 after Jaquez Moore’s 2-yard run with 1:38 to play in the first half. It had been 10 years since Duke held a first-half double-figure lead on North Carolina. The Blue Devils might have had more in the first half if not for North Carolina’s goal-line stand early in the second quarter.
North Carolina answered by going 75 yards in nine plays, with Maye’s 4-yard pass to Caleb Hood closing the first-half scoring with 13 seconds left.
Waters finished with 91 rushing yards on 15 carries.
–Field Level Media
