No. 1 Miami holds off North Carolina’s historic upset bid with 38-35 win :: WRAL.com

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina sought to make history Saturday night against No. 1 Miami. Instead, the Tar Heels ended up on the wrong end of another close call.

UNC, which entered the game 0-11 all-time against top-ranked teams, led in the fourth quarter but couldn’t hold off the high-powered Hurricanes in a 38-35 loss at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill.

The Tar Heels recovered back-to-back onside kick attempts with 95 seconds remaining, but both were wiped out by penalties, allowing Miami to escape and avoid becoming the latest No. 1 team to lose this year.

It was UNC’s second consecutive home loss in a game that they led in the final quarter, following last week’s overtime loss to Syracuse. UNC is 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the ACC. Miami improved to 8-0 and 6-0, though it wasn’t easy against the Tar Heels.

“A lot of effort, a lot of toughness, a lot of mental toughness, a lot of competitiveness, and just disappointing to come up short here two weeks in a row,” North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick said.

Miami scored back-to-back touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including a 9-yard touchdown catch by Malachi Toney with 2 minutes, 33 seconds remaining to take a 38-28 lead. The Tar Heels answered, as they had all night, with a touchdown drive. Quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. connected with Trech Kekahuna for a 23-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 38-35. 

Then came the onside kick attempts. The first was called back for offsides. The second for a hit by linebacker Peyton Seelman just before the ball had gone 10 yards. And UNC never got a final chance to tie or take the lead.

“It was a little upsetting that you know we didn’t get either of them, but what the refs called,” Seelman said.

North Carolina took its final lead of the night at 28-24 on a 1-yard touchdown run by Demon June with 11:46 remaining. Miami, however, regained the lead on running back Mark Fletcher’s second rushing touchdown of the night about four minutes later.

The Tar Heels then committed the only turnover of the game — a fumble by quarterback Edwards, who was hit as he was trying to throw the ball. Miami recovered and converted the miscue into Toney’s second touchdown for the 38-28 lead.

“With a team like Miami, it’s going to come down to critical plays, critical moments, and we’ll go back and obviously see the strip sack and maybe a few other plays that if we had been able to execute better offensively we may have a different outcome,” Edwards said. “It sucks. I’ll be honest with you, it’s hard.”

Prior to the fumble, it was a back-and-forth affair that featured lead changes throughout the second half. Miami led 17-14 at halftime, but UNC grabbed a 21-17 lead on Edwards’ third touchdown pass of the game — a 16-yard pass to wide receiver Jordan Shipp.

Miami responded with a 2-yard scoring run by Fletcher, which came after a defensive pass interference call in the end zone that had Belichick fuming. Miami’s Jake Weinberg kicked a 25-yard field goal with 22 seconds left in the second quarter to give Miami a 17-14 halftime lead and set up the back-and-forth second half.

Edwards completed 28-of-34 passes for 341 yards and a career-high four touchdowns, including two in the first half to tight end Jelani Thurman. Thurman had five catches for a team-high 70 yards. Nine different receivers had at least one catch, and eight had at least two.

The Tar Heels 8-of-11 on third down and 2-of-2 on fourth down. They punted just once. It wasn’t enough for Belichick to avoid the first loss of his head-coaching career — NFL and college — when scoring 35 or more points. He had been 103-0 in those games, according to ESPN.

“This isn’t the business for moral victories,” Edwards said.

Miami quarterback Darian Mensah, a Duke transfer who beat North Carolina last season with the Blue Devils, completed 22-of-29 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns. Toney had seven catches for 76 yards and two scores, including a 2-yard touchdown grab on the game’s first possession. Both are Heisman Trophy contenders.

“Miami’s really good, really good on offense,” Belichick said. “They’ve got two great players and a lot of other good players. We obviously had a hard time handling them, although I thought we actually defended them pretty well, but they made a couple great plays that you don’t see too many other people make. They’re very good.”

UNC had defeated Miami in their last five meetings. And the Tar Heels beat then-No. 4 Miami on a last-second field goal in Chapel Hill on the day before Halloween in 2004 — still the highest-ranked team the Tar Heels have ever beaten.

UNC fell to 0-6 all-time against No. 1 ranked teams at home.

“We have a good enough team in that locker room,” Edwards said. “It’s up to us in terms of how we go about our business throughout the week to prepare to come ready to play on Saturday — whether it’s a noon game, a 7:45 kickoff, the No. 1 team in the country, unranked, whatever it is. If we do our job and we prepare the right way and we go about our business the right way, we can compete with anybody.”