University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
East Carolina
Tar Heels Leave Pirates Feeling Blue With 24-21 Victory
October 6, 2001 | Football
Oct 6, 2001
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By DAVID DROSCHAK
AP Sports Writer
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Darian Durant threw two touchdown passes and Derrick Johnson made a key fourth-quarter play on special teams as North Carolina beat East Carolina 24-21 Saturday.
The Tar Heels started 0-3 with losses at Oklahoma, Maryland and Texas, but have won three straight, beating the Pirates (2-3) in their first meeting in 20 years.
Durant threw TD passes of 29 and 21 yards to set the North Carolina single-season freshman record for scoring passes with eight. His last one to Sam Aiken with 12:04 left gave the Tar Heels an eight-point lead.
Art Brown then took the ensuing kickoff and was headed into the end zone for what was going to be an 81-yard kickoff return for East Carolina. But Johnson poked the ball out from behind before Brown could cross the goal line and it rolled out of the end zone and the Pirates were deflated.
East Carolina also had two touchdown passes called back because of holding penalties, one a 77-yarder to Richard Alston with 2:38 left in the third quarter that would have given the Pirates a 17-14 lead.
Jeff Reed's career-best 49-yard field goal with 2:48 left helped seal it for the Tar Heels.
Leonard Henry, the nation's fifth-leading rusher, had his fourth straight 100-yard game with 105 on 18 carries, but quarterback David Garrard had an off day as the Pirates fell under .500 this late in the season for the first time since starting 1-5 in 1997.
Garrard, East Carolina's career leading passer with close to 9,000 yards, managed just 107 yards. His 4-yard scoring pass to Brown and two-point run with 23 seconds left closed the gap to three, but Aiken recovered the onside kick and North Carolina ran the clock out.
North Carolina took the lead for good at 14-10 with 10:10 left in the third quarter when Ronald Curry's pass from 5 yards out tipped off defender Brandon Rainer and into the arms of a diving Zach Hilton.
Curry set the school's all-time total offense mark with 5,521 yards, passing Jason Stanicek, in the fourth quarter as he helped the Tar Heels seal the win.
North Carolina held Florida State and N.C. State to nine points each in its last two wins, but the Pirates rolled down the field on their first two possessions and put up 10 points.
Garrard drove East Carolina 75 yards on 10 plays to open the game. The 250-pound QB made a spectacular play on the TD, avoiding a sack by Joey Evans and then pitching the ball to Alston at the 5 as he was being tackled by four other Tar Heels.
Henry chewed up 45 yards on the ground on East Carolina second drive and it appeared the Pirates would go up by two TDs less than 13 minutes in. But Garrard's apparent 4-yard scoring run was called back after a holding penalty and the Pirates settled for a 31-yard field goal.
East Carolina then allowed the Tar Heels to stay in the game by wasting excellent field position on its next three possessions after outgaining North Carolina 157-36 in the opening quarter.
Durant marched the Tar Heels 89 yards - their longest drive of the season - to close the score to 10-7 late in the second quarter. He capped the drive by hitting Chesley Borders on a 29-yard pass.
