Bill Belichick feels ‘great’ after first ACC win with UNC
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Demon June had two touchdowns and nearly 200 yards of offense, Gio Lopez threw for two scores and Bill Belichick won his first ACC game Friday night when North Carolina came from behind to defeat Syracuse 27-10.
“It feels good. It feels good,” Belichick said. “We had a few opportunities the last few weeks that we weren’t able to capitalize on. It was good to get this one. So we’re looking forward to all the other ACC games.
“Things didn’t go well at the start of the game, but then they kept fighting and we had a very good second half defensively,” he added of a defense that blanked the Orange after the intermission. “We all know that in football it’s not who you play, it’s when you play them. We were probably lucky to have them. 1762028398 unlike the week they played Clemson. »
The Tar Heels (3-5, 1-3 ACC) ended a four-game losing streak, while the Orange (3-6, 1-5) lost for the fifth straight time. North Carolina lost its previous two games by a combined four points.
The Tar Heels hadn’t scored more than 20 points against an FBS team this season and were trailing 10-6 when Lopez hit June out of the air on the team’s first play of the second half. June then broke a tackle and raced down the right sideline for a 72-yard scoring play to give the Tar Heels a 13-10 lead that they never relinquished. On the team’s next series, June ran it in from 5 yards out for a 20-10 lead. A 21-yard strike from Lopez to Jordan Shipp gave the Tar Heels a 17-point lead and 21 unanswered points.
Lopez completed 15 of 19 passes for 216 yards and two touchdowns. June had 101 yards rushing and 81 yards on two receptions. Shipp had six catches for 64 yards.
“He did a great job giving us a spark tonight,” Lopez said of June. “It does a great job in all aspects. It catches blocks better. This screen got us out of the funk we were in.”
Joe Filardi, a true freshman, started at quarterback for the Orange. He was 1 of 11 in the first half and didn’t complete his first pass until 6:12 remained in the half. He finished 4 of 18 for 39 yards. Filardi replaced struggling LSU transfer Rickie Collins, who had gone 0-4 as the starter in relief of Steve Angeli. Angeli, who led the Orange to a 3-1 start, suffered a season-ending Achilles injury against Clemson. Syracuse hasn’t won since.
“It was a straight month of football, and we had other kids on the football team,” Syracuse coach Fran Brown said in defense of Filardi. “I’m just trying to get a new spark or something different to be able to move around. Hopefully it will give our team a little momentum.”
Brown said the decision was “just strictly” based on Filardi’s performance in training.
“I thought he was trying to protect the football, running the football,” Brown said. “A lot of times you just want to blame the quarterback, but there are a lot of them, like 10 other people as well.”
The only touchdown of the first half came from the Syracuse defense. Devin Grant knocked away Shamar Easter’s ball on a short Lopez completion. Linebacker Anwar Sparrow got the ball and ran 51 yards for a score with 4:38 left in the first quarter, giving the Orange a 7-3 lead.
Rece Verhoff made field goals of 24 and 43 yards, and Tripp Woody made a 31-yard field goal for the Orange.
Syracuse had 12 first downs, generated 147 yards of offense and averaged 2.9 yards per play.
