Stanford stifles Carolina offense, Tar Heels fall 25-23 in Sun Bowl

The Stanford Cardinal defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels Friday afternoon in the Sun Bowl, holding off a late two-point conversion attempt to win 25-23.

But the Tar Heels will have one of the best quarterbacks in the nation under center this postseason in junior Mitch Trubisky, who passed for 3,468 yards and 28 touchdowns with just four interceptions this season.

In the final game of his stellar college career, he connected on field goals of 44, 33, 43 and 27 yards. What the junior quarterback didn’t see was Stanford safety Dallas Lloyd, who stepped in front of the pass and returned the interception 45 yards.

Rather than sparking an offensive outburst in the first half, though, the Tar Heels’ scoring drive resulted in their only points through the first two quarters.

The play of the game may have been a one-handed touchdown snag by Sam Rogers to help cut the Razorbacks’ lead to 10 points. That stalled a North Carolina rally that saw it go from being down 13-7 at the half and 16-7 early in the third to taking a 17-16 lead.

The Tar Heels gained only 55 yards for the rest of the first half and their first possession of the second half ended in Weiler’s missed 51-yard field goal attempt. Starting quarterback Kellery Chryst left with a knee injury in the second quarter, forcing backup Ryan Burns into the game.

Despite two endzone drops on the drive – one by Switzer, then Howard – North Carolina got in the endzone, pulling within two points with less than 30 seconds left to play.

The Cardinal committed 12 penalties for 80 yards and sputtered in the red zone, managing four field goals in five trips. The Cardinal went out and won the game 25-23 to finish 10-3.

Stanford has also posted another 10-win season, their sixth in the past seven years. “When the game is on the line, great players make great plays and that’s what Solomon did for us today”.

The new series was announced just hours before Stanford and North Carolina met in the 2016 Sun Bowl, with the Cardinal coming out victorious. UNC couldn’t overcome those mistakes. Instead it was a disappointing finish in a disappointing season, one that began, after the 11-win season a year ago, with such high hopes.

The Sun Bowl survived without Christian McCaffrey, and Stanford did too.

“If you go back and look it seemed like every time there was a play, number 90 was making it”, Fedora said of Thomas, who finished with seven tackles, including a sack and another for a loss. Following a nine-month layoff, Stanford will next take the field in the southern hemisphere, playing Rice in Australia to kick off the 2017-18 season. But Trubisky was sacked while scurrying to set up a potential game-tying, two-point conversion. The Tar Heels lost to Baylor in last year’s Russell Athletic Bowl, and they fell to Rutgers in the 2014 Quick Lane Bowl.