North Carolina scored four touchdowns in the second half after falling behind 17-14 to defeat East Carolina 42-17.

The Tar Heels struggled in the first half with missed opportunities and penalties. Twice quarterback T.J. Yates overthrew open receivers who had beaten the ECU secondary for what would have been touchdowns. A roughing the kicker call on UNC’s Bruce Carter negated excellent field position in ECU territory and restarted a Pirate drive that ended in a touchdown to make it 14-7 ECU.

But the Tar Heels managed to tie the score at 14-14 late in the first half when UNC’s Da’Norris Searcy intercepted a pass and went in from 47 yards out. Searcy, who had been scrutinized under the recent investigations, was cleared to play for the first time earlier in the week.

In the second half, the Tar Heels started to wear down the smaller Pirates, especially with rushing yardage. Carolina held the ball for 22 of the 30 second-half minutes and scored on three straight possessions after UNC’s Casey Barth missed a 37-yard field goal. The Heels went from being behind 17-14 to going up 35-17.

Shaun Draughn scored his third touchdown of the game on a 13-yard cutback run in the last minute to put the finishing touches on the 42-17 victory.

Draughn ended the game with 137 yards rushing while Johnny White bettered him with 140 yards. It’s the first time in six years that two Carolina runningbacks have rushed for more than 100 yards in a game.

East Carolina got up early – on its second drive – as Dominique Davis threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Lance Lewis to culminate a long drive where Davis went eight-for-eight.

UNC came right back to tie the score on its next drive when Yates hit Jheranie Boyd with a 25-yard scoring strike on third-and-10.

ECU went up 14-7 on a trick play where receiver Dwayne Harris threw a 40-yard TD to fellow receiver Joe Womack.

Searcy’s interception tied it at the half before State took a 17-14 lead in the third quarter. Carolina took the lead for the first time at 21-17 when Yates found Dwight Jones running a crossing pattern for 13 yards and a touchdown. The big play in the drive was a 32-yard pass play from Yates to Zach Pianalto.

Three rushing touchdowns later by Draughn, the game was over.

“If you can run the ball,” UNC coach Butch Davis said, “it keeps the other team’s offense off the field and tires the other team out.”

Davis also said it was key that the Tar Heels did not turn the ball over and picked off three passes. In addition to Searcy’s key interception, UNC’s Kevin Reddick and Gene Robinson intercepted tipped passes.

ECU coach Ruffin McNeill, aka Weebles, agreed that the turnovers were costly. But he said that other mistakes also hurt the Pirates. “Penalties hurt us – that’s an understatement – and it put us in some tough situations,” he said. The Pirates were penalized 13 times for more than 100 yards whereas the Heels were penalized 10 times for 80 yards.

As Carolina was steamrolling in the second half, the adversity built but McNeill said he needs to teach the team to just play the next play. He said the team is “young and talented and they’re going to make some mistakes.”

East Carolina finished with a respectable 347 total yards but that’s 100 fewer than the Pirates have averaged plus they only managed 64 on the ground. Carolina racked up 444 total yards with 263 on the ground and 181 through the air.

UNC improves to 2-2 while ECU falls to 2-2.

Random Thoughts: East Carolina was every bit as good as UNC until the Pirates wore down. Coach McNeill has done an excellent job of getting his offense to buy into his passing, quick-playing offense. The defense is simply too small and inexperienced to help the offense much at this point though. McNeill has the Pirates playing better than I thought they would at this point in the season. While they are 0-2 against ACC teams, they are 2-0 in their own conference and will be a force.

Durham Bulls play-by-play announcer Neil Solondz did a commendable job as the ESPN3 announcer for the game. He has a good voice and seems to know the two teams fairly well. He did have the “huh?” moment of the game however when he said that an ECU runner had “a negative gain of two yards.” That would be a two-yard loss to you and me.

His sidekick, commentator Jay Taylor, wasn’t nearly as good. He had too many “duh” moments to mention but the one I liked the most is when he said the ECU defender wouldn’t have been called for interference if he had turned around and not touched the receiver. Ah, duh.

It was nice that Time Warner Cable broadcast the ESPN3 game to its viewers in the state. Otherwise, the game would have only been available through online streaming video. Unfortunately, technical difficulties cut the first few minutes of the game.

Game Photo Gallery

North Carolina’s speed, depth and quick ball movement wore down N.C. State in the second half and the Tar Heels went on to a 3-0 victory in Raleigh tonight.

Carolina held a 1-0 lead at the intermission against the gritty Wolfpack squad after a Kealia Ohai goal from a sharp side angle. The Heels had numerous opportunities to score before that one finally went in.

In the second half, it was apparent that the Tar Heels were getting stronger and the Wolfpack was getting weaker.

Carolina took a 2-0 advantage with 26:33 left when Courtney Jones blasted one to the back of the net from well beyond the box.

About eight minutes later, Carolina went up 3-0 as Rachel Wood headed in a corner kick.

The No. 3 ranked Tar Heels outshot the Pack 19-6 including a 10-2 advantage in the second half. UNC’s goalies had four saves while State’s Kim Kerm made eight saves against the aggressive Heels.

Carolina moves to 10-1-1 and 2-1 in the ACC while State falls to 7-5 and 1-2 in the ACC.

The rivalry showed when a bank of State fans in bleachers near the goal harrassed Jones, who had been physical in attacking the net. Two student fans were escorted out. Moments later Jones answered the taunts with that long, powerful goal. When Wood scored to make it 3-0, she looked toward that group of State fans and mockingly cupped her ear toward them.

Behind two goals from new alternate captain Brandon Sutter, the Carolina Hurricanes topped the Atlanta Thrashers 2-1 in overtime in front of 16,000 at the RBC Center.

It’s the last time the Hurricanes will play in Raleigh until late October as the team opens the regular season in Helsinki, Finland against the Wild.

Sutter said he was impressed with the crowd which provided regular-season excitement to the game. Fans were allowed in free to the 1:30 p.m. game.

The Hurricanes are younger, smaller and faster than last year’s team. Coach Paul Maurice said he is happy with his players but is still looking for chemistry.

The defense held the Thrashers in check until the last minute of the game when they tied it up. Just a minute into overtime, on a fast-break rush, Carolina’s Erik Cole found Sutter on the opposite side of the goal for the game winner.

Cam Ward had 30 saves, including a couple of spectacular ones, for the Hurricanes, who now head out to St. Petersburg, Russia for their final preseason game Monday.

Before the game, outside the RBC Center, young fans got to play roller hockey, jump on inflatibles and shoot pucks.

With losses at Wake Forest and at home against a poor Army team, and the way the defense is playing, it will be tough for Duke to win another game this season. Maryland, this week’s foe, is an opponent we picked at the first of the year that we thought Duke could beat.

It would have been a slight upset but now it would be a big upset as Duke QB Sean Renfree has not excelled. In fact, he’s already thrown seven interceptions for the 1-3 Blue Devils.

Plus, the matchup seems right for Maryland. “We have to limit the big play,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “It’s killed us. We’ve played good five to six snaps and then we give up a monster. And Maryland specializes in the monster.”

The Washington Post says this is one of the easiest games to pick all season. “Maryland in a runaway,” they say. In a Post online poll, 90 percent chose the Terrapins to win.

With Miami, Virginia Tech and Navy on the horizon, Duke better put up a strong effort in this game to attempt to salvage the season. I have a feeling that Duke will play its best game of the year. We’ll see if that’s enough. Otherwise, unless the Devils can beat Virginia, it looks as if this could turn into a 1-11 season.

It’s going to be wet and muddy but it appears games will go forward tonight. Here are 10 football games that are within driving distance in the Triangle area. In bold is the predicted winner. Most games are at 7:30 p.m. You might want to check with local officials as some games start at 7.
My record last week was 9-1 for a season total of 45-15.

Apex at Fuquay-Varina

Durham Jordan at Northern Durham

Durham Riverside at E. Chapel Hill

Garner at Knightdale

Green Hope at Cary

Holly Springs at Panther Creek

Harnett Central at Clayton

Harrells Christian at Wake Christian

Person at Southern Durham

South Granville at Orange

A couple of area games were played Thursday night. Leesville Road defeated Broughton 36-28. Wake Forest Rolesville defeated Enloe 42-0. Check the scores in our Sports Roundup on the left navigation bar.

In another blow to UNC athletics, No. 1 rated high school basketball star Austin Rivers not only canceled a planned official to UNC for this weekend but has committed to Duke.

“He picked Duke because of [Mike Krzyzewski] and his staff,” his high school coach David Bailey said today. “There is a ton of tradition at Duke, and it was the best place for him from a basketball and academic standpoint.”

I guess Carolina and Roy Williams are chopped liver and not even deserving of a visit. Take that Tar Heels.

Rivers’ father, Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, said that Austin’s commitment to Duke has not been finalized but is likely.