The night started the way UNC had hoped and ended the way it least wanted: with Syracuse walking out of Chapel Hill with a 31-30 overtime upset after the Heels let a game slip away.
UNC was favored by better than a touchdown and looked in control early, but the 4th quarter turned the whole thing upside down. Syracuse scored 13 points in the final period, erased the margin and then survived overtime to hand UNC a stunner.
The Heels opened with a sharp, balanced drive that ended in a Jordan Shipp receiving touchdown, the kind of clean start Bill Belichick’s team has leaned on in several of its wins. A quick defensive stop followed, and UNC seemed positioned to make life miserable for Syracuse right away. Instead, the offense stalled in the red zone on the next good opportunity, and Rece Verhoff had to settle things with a field goal to push the lead to 10-7.
Syracuse answered with its longest drive of the season, a march that included two fourth-down conversions and finished with a 1-yard scoring run to make it 10-7. For much of that opening stretch, UNC looked like the more convincing team, but it couldn’t separate.
After a couple of punts, each side added a field goal and UNC carried a 13-10 lead into halftime. Neither passing game found much traction, while both defenses flirted with interceptions that never quite materialized. The ground game was doing most of the work for both teams.
The second half began much like the first. Syracuse’s drive fizzled, UNC moved down the field, and then came another missed chance.
Jordan Washington dropped what looked like an easy touchdown after a bit of deception left him alone in the end zone. UNC recovered immediately, though, and Demon June punched in a 25-yard touchdown run on the next snap to make it 20-10.
That should have been the moment to squeeze the game shut. Instead, UNC’s offense lost its rhythm.
After Syracuse failed on a 4th down near midfield, the Heels had a chance to build a three-score cushion, but the drive unraveled fast. A minimal gain on first and second down was followed by a 15-yard sack on Billy Edwards, flipping field position and killing the possession.
Syracuse made them pay almost instantly. On the very next play, Steve Angeli hit Umari Hatcher, the conference’s most productive receiver, for a 76-yard catch-and-run touchdown that sliced the margin to 20-17.
UNC responded again, as it had in the previous two weeks, with Edwards leading the way. Big completions to Jordan Shipp and Trech Kekahuna pushed the Heels inside the 5. But on 2nd and 3rd down, Edwards missed two clear touchdown chances, and the drive ended with a field goal instead of a knockout blow.
That left the door open, and Syracuse walked right through it. The Orange put together a steady four-minute drive and scored with just under two minutes left, but they missed the extra point that would have given them the lead. That kept things tied, with 110 seconds and a timeout still available to UNC.
The Heels couldn’t seize that moment either. Syracuse got one final crack at a game-winning drive, but Peyton Seelman ended it with a sack on a well-timed blitz, sending the game to overtime.
UNC got the first possession in OT and had to grind through a rocky start before Shipp came up with another big catch to get the Heels into scoring position. Edwards then found June on a dump-off for the touchdown, giving UNC 7 points in the extra frame.
Syracuse answered with its own push. The Orange eventually faced fourth-and-goal and needed four shots to score.
They got the touchdown, then went for two. On a rollout, Angeli found a man at the pylon.
It was ruled good on the field, and the call stood, giving Syracuse the road win.
For UNC, it was a rough one to absorb. The loss felt like the kind of late collapse that has haunted Mack Brown teams before: a game that should have been put away, but instead kept giving the opponent chances until it turned.
Edwards’ night will draw plenty of attention. He started 9-for-9, then completed just 18 of his next 35 passes. He finished with 272 yards on 46 attempts, a season high in volume as the game plan leaned on his arm more than it had all year, but the production settled at 6.2 yards per attempt.
The defense didn’t hold up either, and by the end, UNC had its worst showing of the season at all three levels.
The Heels now turn to a home matchup against No. 1 Miami on Halloween night.
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Thomas already got his first taste of the college game in an exhibition for UNC, logging four minutes and making his presence felt on the defensive end. It was a small opening night sample, but for a player whose road to campus shifted so suddenly, even a brief debut offered a first glimpse of how he might fit into the Tar Heels backcourt picture. [Read more 🡒]
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UNC Womens Soccer Just Sent Another Message To The Top 10
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Peyton Trayer did her part to make the lone strike stand up, finishing with a career-high seven saves to preserve the shutout. It was Carolina's second top-10 win of the season and its ninth shutout overall, another reminder that this group keeps answering big challenges with the kind of edge that travels deep into the postseason conversation. [Read more 🡒]