Bill Belichick can finally exhale a little. His North Carolina Tar Heels rallied to beat Syracuse 27-10 on Friday night and snap a four-game losing streak.
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It moves UNC to 3-5 overall and 1-3 in the ACC. Syracuse drops to 3-6 and has now lost five straight.
It looked shaky early. Syracuse linebacker Anwar Sparrow returned a fumble 51 yards for a touchdown and the Orange took a 10-6 lead into halftime. But UNC owned the second half.
Quarterback Gio Lopez went 15-of-19 for 216 yards and two touchdowns. Demon June was the spark. He broke loose for a 72-yard catch-and-run to start the third quarter and added a five-yard rushing score later. Jordan Shipp delivered the knockout, hauling in a 21-yard touchdown to cap the 21 unanswered points.
"Feels good. Feels great," Belichick said, via ESPN. "We had a couple of opportunities the last couple of weeks that we couldn't capitalize on. It was good to get this one."
Belichick also admitted timing played a role.
"Things didn't go great at the beginning, but they kept battling," he said. "We were probably fortunate to get them now as opposed to the week they played Clemson."
North Carolina still has work to do and the margin of error is basically zero. But this is what his first ACC breakthrough looks like. A Belichick team finding a way and turning a game late.
