Devin Leary threw two touchdown passes and No. 23 North Carolina State built on its big upset from a week earlier by defeating visiting Louisiana Tech 34-27 on Saturday night in Raleigh, N.C.
It wasn’t over until Jakeen Harris intercepted a pass in the end zone on the game’s last play after Louisiana Tech drove to the NC State 22-yard line.
Zonovan Knight’s 4-yard touchdown run with 7:45 left helped clinch the outcome for NC State, which moved to a 4-1 record for the second year in a row.
The Wolfpack never trailed but it had trouble pulling away, taking the lead for good in the waning seconds of the first half.
Austin Kendall finished with 341 passing yards and three touchdowns for Louisiana Tech (2-3), which has just four victories in 52 all-time games against Top 25 opposition.
Leary ended up 22-for-36 for 251 yards.
NC State’s Ricky Person, who had a 24-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, produced 90 yards on the ground on 15 attempts. Knight racked up 85 rushing yards on 13 carries.
Still, Kendall threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes, the latter on a 14-yard play to Griffin Herbert with 4:43 to play.
NC State, coming off a double-overtime win against Clemson a week earlier, is 4-0 at home.
NC State scored first on Leary’s 6-yard pass play to Chris Toudle, who dove into the end zone.
Louisiana Tech responded with a nine-play, 75-yard drive, capped by Kendall’s 2-yard toss to Jacob Adams.
Christopher Dunn, who missed all three of his field-goal attempts in the Clemson game (including a game-winning attempt from 39 yards on the final play of regulation), drilled a 36-yard field goal as the Wolfpack took a 10-7 lead in the second quarter. Louisiana Tech’s Jacob Barnes tied the game at 10-all when he booted a 21-yarder with 2:12 left in the half.
From there, each team punted before the Wolfpack went 57 yards in 36 seconds, setting up Dunn’s 29-yard field goal with two seconds left in the half.
Louisiana Tech’s two previous defeats this season came by a combined three points, including a one-point setback at Mississippi State, where NC State happened to suffer its lone defeat.
–Field Level Media
