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North Carolina: 63, Appalachian State: 61.
Yes, this was a football game. College football, a normal sport.
North Carolina appeared to take control of the football game to the point where swaths of Appalachian State fans left the stadium at the end of the third quarter. At the time, the Tar Heels led 41–21 in a game that Mountaineers fans had circled for quite some time.
It was a disappointing third quarter showing for App State, where UNC scored all 13 points to take a commanding three score lead.
It was over…until it wasn’t.
Appalachian State became the first team in 15 years to score 40 points in the fourth quarter. The Mountaineers outscored the Tar Heels, 40–22, and had a two-point conversion opportunity with under a minute to play that would have given them the lead at 57–56, but quarterback Chase Brice missed a wide open running back out of the backfield that all but doomed the Mountaineers’ chances.
Until it didn’t.
It really, really looked like the game was over when North Carolina’s Bryson Nesbit ran back the ensuing onside kick 43 yards for a touchdown with 28 seconds to play. The Tar Heels took a 63–55 lead, and it seemed insurmountable.
Until it wasn’t.
Brice and the App. State offense used multiple chunk plays to march right up the field and score a touchdown with nine seconds remaining to pull within two. All of a sudden, the Mountaineers were a mere two-point conversion away from sending the game to overtime.
However, Brice was stuffed at the goal line on a QB option and Carolina held on.
North Carolina finished with 567 yards of offense, while Appalachian State ran up 664 of their own. According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, the 62 total points in the fourth quarter was one point shy of an FBS record. The combined 124 points scored also beat out the basketball matchup between the two schools last season, where 120 total points were scored.
Here’s a thread of the greatest social media reactions to the wildest college football game of the season so far.
