Duke flips things around, beats N.C. State
DURHAM – One play changed the tone of Duke’s game against N.C. State.
It might have saved the Blue Devils’ season.
Duke swung momentum its way late in the first half and its offense got rolling for a 45-33 victory against N.C. State on Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium.
Tre Freeman’s interception and 67-yard return to N.C. State’s 12-yard line in the last minute of the first half flipped this game around. The Wolfpack (3-1, 1-1 ACC) was driving and led by a touchdown.
The senior linebacker’s fourth career interception came at the most opportune of times.
After a pass interference call put the ball on the 2, Anderson Castle punched in his second short touchdown run of the first half and Duke (2-2, 1-0) took a 21-20 lead to halftime.
It was Duke’s first halftime lead of the season.
Duke started with the ball in the second half and scored on Darian Mensah’s 33-yard pass to Sahmir Hagans. After the Wolfpack answered with Hollywood Smothers’ 51-yard touchdown run, the Blue Devils had another answer.
On fourth-and-1, Mensah beautifully hid the ball on a play-fake and threw a 37-yard touchdown to Cooper Barkate. N.C. State settled for a field goal attempt on its next possession and it was blocked by Wesley Williams.
N.C. State got within a touchdown with about four minutes left. That came on a 15-play, 95-yard drive—the Wolfpack’s second marathon drive of the game.
Castle put the game on ice with a 66-yard touchdown run with 2:19 left.
The first half was snowballing on the Blue Devils again. The last few minutes changed everything about the tone of this game.
N.C. State scored on the third play of the game. That was a 75-yard screen pass on third-and-11.
The Wolfpack’s second touchdown came on a 16-play, 99-yard drive that engulfed 9:20 of the clock. N.C. State went up 20-7 with an 80-yard march (the PAT was missed).
Duke answered that score with a touchdown, Landen King hauling in an acrobatic 17-yard catch in the end zone. That drive started with a third-and-10 conversion after N.C. State declined a holding penalty.
Duke got its first two interceptions of the season in the first half. It couldn’t turn DaShawn Stone’s early interception into points.
