The Tar Heels are punching their ticket to Charlotte, but it didn’t come easy. No. 15 Carolina gutted out a 36-34 win at Wake Forest Saturday night, taking the lead on a late Noah Burnette field goal and standing firm on defense to ice the victory. Not only is UNC celebrating just its second ACC Coastal Division title, but Carolina finishes the season 6-0 in true road games. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a program which finished 0-5 in true road games a year ago.
Coastal = Clinched ✔️#CarolinaFootball 🏈 @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/7eENTTkIup
— Carolina Football (@UNCFootball) November 13, 2022
Redshirt freshman quarterback Drake Maye and junior wide receiver Josh Downs made magic all night against the Deacons, with Maye amassing 519 total yards and five total touchdowns. Three of Maye’s four passing touchdowns went to Downs, all in the first half. Downs finished with 11 catches for 154 yards, and his three touchdowns were his most in a single game. In his last four games, Downs has caught 46 passes for 548 yards and six touchdowns.
Maye and Downs helped UNC burst out of the gate to the tune of leads of 14-0 and 21-7 in the first half. But Wake’s explosive offense, led by quarterback Sam Hartman, quickly made up the deficit before the halftime break. A seven-yard touchdown pass from Hartman, one of three on the night for him, evened the score at 21-21 with 4:06 remaining in the second quarter.
Carolina needed just 1:44 to answer on a 20-yard strike from Maye to Downs, but here is where things got weird: kicker Noah Burnette hooked the extra point, meaning UNC led only 27-21 entering the locker rooms.
Wake Forest scored on its opening drive in the third quarter, with Hartman finding star receiver A.T. Perry for 32 yards. Because of the missed extra point, Wake took the lead at 28-27. When Carolina answered on its next drive with Maye’s fifth rushing touchdown, the offense attempted a two-point conversion to make up for the miss. Despite drawing a pass interference penalty on the first try, UNC was stuffed on the second, making the score 33-28.
Wake needed just 1:01 to score another touchdown of his own, this one 60 yards off the right arm of Hartman. Up 34-33, Wake attempted another two-point conversion to take three-point lead, but it too fell short. With the teams bouncing touchdowns back and forth, the stage was set for Carolina to answer once again.
It looked like the Tar Heels would do just that as another Maye completion to Downs set UNC up with a 2nd and goal at the Wake Forest 1-yard line. But Carolina was stopped on three consecutive plays: a Maye run, an Elijah Green run and a Maye pass, which was batted down at the line.
The Demon Deacons, unfazed at the prospect of setting up shop in the shadow of their own goalpost, promptly marched all the way to the UNC 10-yard line. Facing a 4th and 3, Wake head coach Dave Clawson elected to go for it while leading 34-33. Hartman tried to convert on the ground, but fumbled across the first-down line while lunging for the yardage. A Demon Deacon recovered the ball, but by rule the ball went back to the spot of the fumble, which was behind the marker. UNC took over on downs.
But Carolina couldn’t take advantage of the break, driving only to its own 33 before punting with 5:47 left. Now driving inside UNC territory and primed to put the game away, Hartman made his biggest mistake: his throw over the middle was picked off by Carolina safety Cam Kelly, who returned the ball to the Wake 48. It was a déjà vu moment for both teams, as Kelly snagged two critical interceptions against Hartman in last season’s meeting in Kenan Stadium.
Spurred by a 43-yard completion to Downs, Carolina drove deep into Wake territory. Burnette trotted out to attempt a go-ahead field goal, and this time knocked it through. Back off the mat, UNC had the lead again at 36-34.
The Carolina defense, taken advantage of so often on the night, didn’t allow Wake any breathing room on the next possession, forcing a turnover on downs in four plays. With the ball and the lead and the clock at 1:14, UNC got one more first down to ice the game.
And that was the end of a wild night in Winston-Salem.
Now 9-1 and bound to rise again in next week’s College Football Playoff rankings, Carolina is the first ACC team since 2011 to go 6-0 in true road games. The Tar Heels are 9-2 against in-state ACC opponents since head coach Mack Brown returned to Chapel Hill in 2019. Its nine wins this season are already the program’s most in that time.
UNC will finish out the regular season with two home games, the first of which comes against Georgia Tech Saturday evening at 5:30 p.m.
Featured image via The Daily Tar Heel/Anna Connors
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