No. 1 Miami Leads North Carolina 17-14 at Halftime in Chapel Hill
The top-ranked Miami Hurricanes took a 17-14 lead into halftime at North Carolina on Saturday night, after the Tar Heels matched them touchdown for touchdown in a back-and-forth second quarter at Kenan Stadium.
No. 1 Miami led North Carolina 17-14 at halftime on Saturday night at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, in a Halloween-night ACC game the Hurricanes entered at 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the conference against a 4-3 Tar Heels team. Miami scored first and led 7-0 after one quarter, then watched North Carolina tie the game twice in the second quarter before a late field goal restored the Hurricanes' lead at the break.
Quarterback Billy Edwards connected with tight end Jelani Thurman for both of North Carolina's first-half touchdowns, the second tying the game at 14 with 1:56 left in the half, according to the live game blogs read by this desk. Miami answered with a nine-play, 68-yard drive, but the Tar Heels held in the red zone, and Jake Weinberg's 25-yard field goal with 22 seconds left in the half gave Miami its 17-14 edge. Miami quarterback Darian Mensah threw two touchdown passes in the game, including a 31-yard scoring pass to running back Mark Fletcher Jr. on a nine-play, 75-yard drive in the second quarter.
The storyline behind the score is the streak: North Carolina had beaten Miami five straight times entering Saturday, and the Tar Heels have never beaten a No. 1 team in program history, according to the game coverage read this run. Miami's next game after Saturday is at Notre Dame. This is a halftime report; the Sports desk will file the final score in a later cycle after the game ends.
