North Carolina Football: 3 takeaways from shootout win over Wake Forest
North Carolina football beat the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in Chapel Hill Saturday in an exciting game. Here’s what we learned from the shootout.
The North Carolina Tar Heels faced the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Saturday afternoon in Chapel Hill and came away with a 59-53 shootout win.
North Carolina came into the game 5-2, while Wake Forest came entered 4-2 on the season. North Carolina defeated Duke last week, while Wake Forest had a bye, but defeated Syracuse the week before. The Tar Heels swept the state for the first time since 2015 by defeating Wake Forest.
What’d we learn from this one?
3. The first half set the tone
Both teams were on point in the first half as they took turns putting scores on the board.
Wake Forest scored the first touchdown when Kenneth Walker III took the ball one yard into the end zone for the score. North Carolina answered in the next drive when Dazz Newsome took the ball 75 yards for a quick touchdown score. The Tar Heels came close to putting another touchdown up in their next drive but settled for a 26-yard field goal by Grayson Atkins. They took the lead, 10-7.
Not to be outdone, on the Demon Deacons’ next drive, Christian Beal-Smith moved the ball 37 yards and then Sam Hartman connected with Jaquari Robertson who caught a 40-yard touchdown pass.
Wake Forest took the lead with just over two minutes in the first quarter, but keeping with the tempo of the game, North Carolina finished out the quarter with yet another touchdown. This time Sam Howell connected with Dyami Brown who took it 23 yards for the score. The Tar Heels were on top at the end of the first quarter, 17-14.
Wake Forest opened up the second quarter with a quick touchdown score between Hartman and Donavon Greene for the 17-yard score with just 45 seconds off of the clock.
North Carolina’s first drive consisted of five plays and ended when Howell and Newsome connected and he took the ball 44 yards for the touchdown. The Tar Heels took the lead again, 24-21. In the next drive, Hartman fumbled the ball at the endzone, but was able to recover it, and pushed through for the score. This led to the sixth lead change of the first half, 28-14.
The Wake Forest defense was able to stop the Tar Heels from answering with any points for the first time in the first half in the next play and they were forced to punt. The Tar Heels’ defense did the same thing in their next drive, but this time it was the second time Carolina held Wake Forest to a punt. The tempo slowed down in the next couple of drives as well.
Wake Forest did have enough energy to make big moves to end the first half. Walker rushed the ball one yard to extend the Wake Forest lead, 35-24. Then in North Carolina’s final possession of the quarter, Ja’Sir Taylor picked the football in the end zone, causing a turnover instead of a touchdown.
The first half was truly a shootout.