Tag: 18193156

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) — Anderson Castle rushed for three touchdowns and Duke rallied from a fourth-quarter deficit to beat rival UNC 32-25 and keep the Victory Bell on Saturday.

Castle punched in the go-ahead 1-yard touchdown with 2:18 left, set up by an audacious fake field-goal call, and Duke followed with a late stop to hold off the Tar Heels.

“It’s two years in a row that when it came down to winning time at the end of the game in this fixture, that the Duke guys were the ones making the plays in clutch time,” Blue Devils coach Manny Diaz said.

The win made the Blue Devils (6-5, 5-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) bowl eligible again, along with ensuring they could keep the Victory Bell that goes to the rivalry winner for another year.

Castle ran for three 1-yard touchdowns for Duke, then joined with kicker Todd Pelino to finally put the Blue Devils on top.

With Duke trailing 25-24, Duke lined up a 45-yard field goal for the lead – only to see holder Kade Reynoldson take the snap and flip it to Pelino to the left side.

Pelino took off to the open field for 26 yards, getting all the way to the UNC 1-yard line in a stunning play that set up Castle’s score. Duke followed with Darian Mensah hitting Nate Sheppard on the left side for the 2-point conversion that pushed the margin to seven.

“That’s the first time in a football game I’ve ever had the ball in my hands, in college,” Pelino said, referring to logging offensive stats rather than anything with kicking or holding on special teams.

The fake turned into the kind of memorable moment that will be part of the long-running lore of the rivalry between neighboring Atlantic Coast Conference schools.

“We felt like it was there,” Diaz said. “And we had seen evidence through the course of the game that it was there. They were rushing hard. We had invited a little bit, we didn’t block great on the wing last week.”

Then there was the fact that a kick would put Duke up just two on a night when the Blue Devils had struggled to get stops.

“Up by two is not great, right?” Diaz said. “Like a field goal beats you. It didn’t necessarily feel like a gamble. It felt like something we felt like would be there. And I just felt it was really important for us to try to cash in on a play that could potentially get us a touchdown.”

Pelino said the Blue Devils had been working on it for more than a month.

“We had to check out of it if they were in a certain look, and they weren’t in that look, so we knew we were going to run it,” Pelino said. “I’m picking out the spot and Kade goes, “Flipper left.” I was like, ‘Here we go.’”

As for North Carolina, getting caught by that trick play likely ensured coach Bill Belichick – after winning six Super Bowl titles in the NFL with the New England Patriots – won’t reach a bowl game in his first college season.

“There’s always a chance of a fake,” Belichick said when asked whether he thought there was a chance of a fake.

So what was the biggest mistake?

“That we didn’t have it covered,” he said flatly.

Gio Lopez threw and ran for a touchdown for UNC (4-7, 2-5), while Davion Gause also ran one in.

UNC had a final possession, but didn’t move the ball before Lopez’s fourth-down throw for Kobe Paysour fell incomplete with 1:18 left.

“Just made too many mistakes, too many bad plays, obviously too many penalties,” Belichick said. “So that’s about the story. Really not a lot to add to that.”

The Blue Devils were riding high after a thrilling win at Clemson, their first in Death Valley since 1980, only to lose at UConn and then badly at home to No. 19 Virginia. They led this one 24-10 only to squander that lead, then come through in thrilling fashion anyway.

The Tar Heels had shown gains in wins against Syracuse and Stanford before trailing the entire way in a loss at Wake Forest. Now Belichick, who won six Super Bowls as an NFL head coach, is 0-2 against in-state ACC rivals.

The Blue Devils host Wake Forest in an in-state rivalry game next Saturday.

The Tar Heels visit rival N.C. State next Saturday.

The Associated Press contributed.