UNC football team beats Rutgers for first win

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The North Carolina football team was a bull enclosed by a sea of red against Rutgers on Saturday.

UNC moved the ball well at times behind senior quarterback T.J. Yates, but when it came to converting points, Rutgers handled UNC in matador-like fashion. North Carolina couldn’t make the play it so often needed in the first quarter and consistently kept missing the mark.

Then the bull pushed back.

“It’s kind of like being in a prize fight,” UNC coach Butch Davis said. “You just kind of sit there and you jab, and you jab, and you find the cut, and you work the cut, and before long, that little-bitty tiny cut starts getting a little bit bigger.”

Out of 11 players either under investigation or suspended, six starting defenders were ineligible to play.

But the defense solidified and held Rutgers to three points in the last three quarters, ultimately leading to a 17-13 win.

The defense didn’t just hold Rutgers — it put UNC in position to score points. One play in particular, linebacker Bruce Carter’s 55-yard interception, changed the pace of the game and led to UNC’s second touchdown, which proved to be the game-winner.

“There’s no substitute for play-makers and guys that have the God-given ability to be able to make plays,” Davis said. “Bruce has had it since he became a freshman here and he’s had it his entire career.

“We used to have eight or nine of those guys and now we’ve got a few, and the few we had, showed up and they made plays.”

Carter’s second-quarter interception set up a one-yard Johnny White touchdown run. The linebacker struck again in the fourth quarter with a blocked punt, his first since UNC played Connecticut in 2008.

But Carter wasn’t the only notable name on UNC’s defense Saturday. Linebacker Quan Sturdivant finished the game with 12 tackles and a sack, junior defensive end Quinton Coples tallied nine tackles and three sacks and junior safety Matt Merletti caught his first-ever interception to all but seal UNC’s win.

“Everybody, as far as the (defensive) line and the secondary, they played a great game,” Carter said. “I was really proud of those guys. I’m more happy about them than I am myself.”

With a third-quarter touchdown pass to senior halfback Ryan Taylor and the 10 points Carter’s turnovers led to, UNC had a four-point lead. But the Tar Heels needed two late stands to stop the Rutgers offense, and for a defense feeling the majority of the backlash from the 11 ineligible players, that wasn’t guaranteed.

“We knew it was going to be tough,” Yates said. “Our defense did an amazing job that last series, just getting to the quarterback, pressuring him a little bit. Our defense did a good job.”

UNC (1-2) wasn’t without its own issues in the game. The Tar Heels turned the ball over three times and botched a punt, but none of that mattered when Rutgers had 2:21 of game time to march 34 yards for a touchdown.

The defense stopped the Scarlet Knights on four plays, two of which were a sack and a batted-down pass by junior defensive tackle Tydreke Powell.

Though the team struggled to finish drives, Yates finished the game 22-for-30 for 204 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Running backs White and Shaun Draughn combined for 91 yards.

For UNC, the game was all about making the right plays at the right time, which is exactly what the Tar Heels did to avoid their first 0-3 start since 2003.

“In my memory, I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of a football team,” Davis said.

“We didn’t play as well as we’d like to in the first half, but I was very, very proud of our players and our coaches with some of the second-half adjustments that we made and guys that just keep hanging in there.”

Contact the Sports Editor

at sports@unc.edu.