Duke Rolls to 41-3 at NC State Behind Nate Sheppard's 217 Yards
Take away the 100-yard return and this is still a 34-3 Duke win. That tells you how it went. Duke beat NC State 41-3, and the Wolfpack's only points came on a 39-yard K. Vinesett field goal in the first quarter, their one real answer to Duke's opening score.
Nate Sheppard set the tone on Duke's first score, a 69-yard touchdown run at 14:12 of the first quarter. He added an 8-yarder in the second and a 4-yarder in the third, and ended with 18 carries for 217 yards and three touchdowns. Duke ran for 239 yards on 34 carries as a team, so he had 91 percent of them. NC State ran 25 times for 32 yards, which is where the game was won.
The second quarter was where it got out of hand. After a 25-yard G. Strange field goal, Walker Eget hit Jaivon Solomon for an 18-yard touchdown with 26 seconds left. Then Vinesett's 50-yard field goal try, with the clock at 0:00, came up short, and A. Pellicciotta returned it 100 yards for a touchdown. That made it 31-3 at the break, and a missed kick turned into the last nail (it is not often you can say that about a field goal that did not score). Strange added a 46-yarder in the fourth to close it out.
Nobody turned the ball over. Duke had 462 yards to NC State's 217, and the difference was entirely on the ground, 239 yards to 32. Duke is 7-2 now, NC State is 4-5. The fantasy winner was obvious, but Solomon had a season-high 18.1 points on five catches, and Eget was a steady 14.3 on a quiet 22 of 31.