Gould's 5 Field Goals Propel Cavaliers

Overturned Call Is Key as Virginia Goes to 2-0 in ACC: Virginia 22, North Carolina 20

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Sept. 15 -- Cedric Peerman ran around and through the North Carolina defense for 186 yards and a touchdown, and Chris Gould tied a Virginia record for field goals. But the heroes for the Cavaliers in Saturday's 22-20 victory over North Carolina might be a pair of team managers.

The two managers were standing behind the east end zone after Gould apparently missed the fourth of what would become five field goals -- a 48-yard shot with 8 minutes 11 seconds left in the third quarter.

"At first, when I kicked it, and I looked up, I thought I saw it go over the bar," Gould said. "But then they said no good. I told [an assistant coach], 'I don't feel like I hit that one short.'

"Right as I said that, two managers who go down to retrieve the balls after we're done kicking came back and said, 'It was good, it was good,' " Gould said. "So from there, we passed the word on to Coach [Al] Groh, who ultimately challenged it, and it worked out for the team."

Replays showed that one of the officials under the goal posts apparently flinched as the ball headed toward the uprights and may not have seen the ball when it cleared the crossbar. Groh's challenge led to an eventual reversal, giving Virginia (2-1, 2-0 ACC) a 19-7 lead.

"I trust the opinion of the people, and they were that adamant about it," Groh said. "You've got to believe and trust what they have to offer, so obviously that worked out greatly for us as three points were pretty important."

North Carolina (1-2, 0-1) shook off the reversal and drew to 19-14 when T.J. Yates hit Hakeem Nicks on a 53-yard scoring play. Nicks slipped one tackler and dragged another Virginia defender about seven yards into the end zone.

The Tar Heels forced a Virginia punt and moved from their 20 to the Cavaliers 41. But defensive end Chris Long snatched Yates's pass out of the air and ran 25 yards to the North Carolina 30.

Two holding penalties and a delay of game stalled Virginia's drive and Gould kicked a 32-yard field goal with 8:56 left.

"I've played this moment thousands of times in my head, maybe even hundreds just last night," Gould said. "As a kicker, you come in prepared to make all the field goals the team needs. It just feels really good to perform the way I did today."

North Carolina rallied from a second turnover and marched 85 yards to score on Yates's two-yard pass to Richard Quinn with 1:57 left. But Yates's two-point conversion pass was batted down by Nate Collins at the line of scrimmage.

"We really feel like we beat ourselves," Nicks said. "Virginia played very hard, but we had some mental mistakes that we need to fix in practice this week -- protecting the ball, the quarterback going through his reads -- mental stuff like that."

The victory ended Virginia's four-game road losing streak in the ACC.

"We just try to take what the defense is giving us," Peerman said of his performance. "Today, the running game was there. The running game was solid. We still left some yards out on the field, so we're just trying to get better each and every week. Certainly, today, we got better."

Peerman ran one yard for a first-quarter score. Gould had a career-best 51-yard field goal in the period, and added kicks of 28 and 37 yards in the second quarter before Yates hit Nicks on a four-yard scoring pass with 22 seconds left in the half.

Yates has nine touchdown passes in three games, the best performance by a North Carolina quarterback to start a season. But the Tar Heels came out slowly against Virginia, and had just 125 yards of offense in the first half. They only crossed the 50-yard-line twice. The first drive ended in a fumble and the other led to the first touchdown pass to Nicks.

"We had a lot of drives where we shot ourselves in the foot -- a couple of fumbles, an interception," Yates said. "We need to work on just being efficient and not making those kinds of mistakes. We can't have those kinds of starts. If we try to come out in the second half and then turn it on, we're not going to win."