RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — N.C. State's long field goal to close the first half had fallen short of the uprights, the ball landing right in Andrew Pellicciotta's arms at the back of the end zone.
The Duke safety brought it out for a return just like he had been coached to do. He just never figured he'd actually make it from one end zone to the other for a rare “Kick Six” like he did to highlight the Blue Devils' 41-3 win at N.C. State on Saturday
.“I was
just searching for grass,” Pellicciotta said. “I know in a situation like that, the last play of the half, you've just got to do whatever you can to find room and stuff like that. Search for blockers, and they helped me out a little bit.”
Pellicciotta had missed the past two games with a lower-body injury, but turned in a highlight-reel moment on a dominant afternoon for the Blue Devils. With Pellicciotta going from one sideline to the other on his long sprint to the end zone, it was also the play that slammed the door on any idea the Wolfpack might win for the second time in as many games under an interim coach.
The play, which pushed Duke to a 31-3 lead at the break, was officially credited as a 100-yard return, though it was closer to 109 yards as a true length-of-the-field run. It is also believed to be the first time in Duke history that a player returned a missed field goal that wasn't blocked for a touchdown.
“I mean, that play must have taken 30 seconds, it felt like,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said.
After N.C. State’s Kanoah Vinesett came up short on a 50-yard field goal into the wind to end the first half, Pellicciotta caught it at the back of the end zone and brought it out, first to the left side with a wall of blockers. The he cut across the field to the right side with multiple blockers ahead of him.
At that point, it looked like he might run out of grass near the sideline. But the sophomore then cut back slightly inside of a would-be tackler, then another who was being blocked. And as he ran those final yards, multiple blocking teammates behind him had their arms raised in jubiliation at a remarkable play.
When did Pellicciotta think he might make it all the way?
“Probably when I got to like the 15, to be honest," he said. “I don't know, I was running out of gas pretty fast.”
He wasn't the only one.
“I don't know how he did it with his leg, because I was tired and I was out there blocking,” defensive tackle Preston Watson said.
“It's something you kind of sometimes maybe walk through the motions in practice, you're like, ‘Ah, this may not happen.’ But then when it does and it hits home, it hits hard."
It certainly did, an emphatic close to the half that drained whatever life was left out of the Wolfpack — who would get the ball to start the third quarter — and had boos cascading down in the Wolfpack’s Carter-Finley Stadium.
“Everything from this game needs to start with me,” said interim coach Todd Goebbel, who fell to 1-1 since taking over after the firing of longtime coach Dave Doeren. “We need to do a better job of covering the football, but we had multiple opportunities the entire time to get him down and we didn’t.”
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