Daniel Evans threw three touchdown passes -- including the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter -- to lead North Carolina State to a 24-20 victory over No. 17 Florida State on Thursday.
Evans connected with John Dunlap on a 12-yard (11m) score with 10:36 left for the Wolfpack (3-2, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which got another poised performance from the redshirt sophomore quarterback in just his second career start.
Andre Brown added 113 yards rushing, marking the second straight year Brown cracked the 100-yard mark against the Seminoles (3-2, 1-2).
Brown ran for 179 yards last year in a 20-15 road win, marking the Wolfpack's third win in six tries against the Seminoles under coach Chuck Amato -- an 18-year assistant at Florida State to Bobby Bowden before taking over here in 2000. In fact, the Wolfpack came in as the only ACC team with four wins against Florida State since the Seminoles joined the league 14 years ago.
Now NC State has another big win to celebrate against Amato's former boss -- and Evans was a big reason why.
Evans completed 13 of 22 passes for 190 yards to lead NC State to back-to-back wins against ranked opponents. In fact, his scoring pass to Dunlap was eerily similar to the TD toss he threw to Dunlap with 8.5 seconds left in a 17-15 win against Boston College two weeks ago.
With the Wolfpack facing a second down, Evans lobbed a perfectly thrown pass toward the right corner of the end zone. Dunlap jumped over defender Patrick Robinson and came down with the football and a 24-20 lead.
The lead ultimately held up, but not by much. The Seminoles put together one last drive that started at their own 5-yard line with 5:39 left, but the drive stalled at NC State's 39 when DaJuan Morgan intercepted a pass by Drew Weatherford with about two-and-a-half minutes left. The Seminoles had burned their last timeout early in the fourth, allowing Evans and the Wolfpack to kill the clock to end it.
Meanwhile, the Seminoles find themselves slipping further down the ACC's Atlantic Division standings after blowing a 10-point third-quarter lead.
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