ACC Football: UNC 41, Delaware 14

Chris Baird, Triangle Sports Network

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina Tar Heels rolled past the Delaware Blue Hens to post a 41-14 victory at Kenan Stadium on Saturday.

Quarterbacks Mitch Trubisky (17-20, 4 TDs) and Marquise Williams (6-12) threw for 312 yards and 65 yards respectively, as they guided Carolina’s offense to gain a season-high 568 yards of total offense, improving on its previous mark of 471 yards in a 48-14 win over Illinois last week.

Mack Hollins led all receivers with two touchdown catches, finishing the game hauling in three passes for 100 yards, while Ryan Switzer caught five passes for 89 yards and a touchdown, and receiver Quinshad Davis contributed 83 yards with five catches.

Elijah Hood led all UNC rushers with 14 carries for 61 yards as the Tar Heels gained 191 net yards on the ground.

The Blue Hens (1-3) surprised the Tar Heels (3-1) early on, scoring on their second down during their opening drive of the game.

Hens running back Thomas Jefferson found daylight through the Tar Heels secondary and ran 72-yards to put Delaware ahead 7-0 just 51 seconds into the game.

Williams didn’t waste time in balancing the score as he completed a five-play, 65-yard drive with an 18-yard keeper barely a minute later.

Linebacker Jeff Schoettmer recorded his third career interception with five minutes remaining in the opening quarter.

However, the turnover didn’t translate into points as place kicker Nick Weiler missed his first field goal attempt of the season, a 34-yard opportunity that ended the Tar Heels ensuing possession.

The Tar Heels kicker made up for his shortfall when he put two field goals, 46 and 26-yard attempts, through the uprights during the second quarter to give UNC a 13-7 lead.

Starting in the second half, Trubisky ‘s performance eventually set a single-game UNC record for pass efficiency (282 rating), and included running the ball six times for 39 yards.

He set single-game career highs for completions, attempts, passing yards and touchdown passes as North Carolina outscored Delaware 28-7 during the final two quarters.

On UNC’s second drive of the third, he tossed a 33-yard touchdown pass to Mack Hollins to extend the Carolina lead to 20-7.

Trubisky also put up touchdown passes of 10 yards to Bug Howard and 63 yards to Switzer.

He later found Hollins again on a 64-yard touchdown play, the longest touchdown of his career to date, while Hollins’ scoring catches were his first of the season that pushed him to the century receiving mark.

Along with Shoettmer, linebacker Shakeel Rashad led the Tar Heels defense as it allowed only 24 passing yards by the Blue Hens, a finish in keeping a team to less than 50 passing yards for the first time since 1996.

Rashad finished with a career-high 10 tackles and had a tackle for a loss, while Schoettmer made six tackles.

Highlights – ACC Digital Network – TheACC.com

Notes: Carolina did not punt the ball throughout the game, the first time that has happened since a 41-17 win over Maryland on Oct. 15, 1994…The Tar Heels were 7-of-7 in third-down conversions in the second half and finished a season-best 10-of-13 for the game… UNC did not commit a turnover for the second time in four games this year, nor has it lost a fumble in any of its first four games… Carolina has allowed 14 points in each of the last three games…Carolina is 3-1 for the first time since 2011.