COLLEGE PARK - Unlike most of the victories in Maryland's winning streak, the sure thing didn't come until the end.
That was when Nick Novak - good on 82 percent of his field-goal tries this season - booted a 26-yard kick with 34 seconds left to give the Terrapins their seventh victory in a row, a 24-21 win over 14th-ranked North Carolina State yesterday at Byrd Stadium.
"It's every kicker's dream to have a kick like that in a season or even a career," said Novak, who put his team in second place in the Atlantic Coast Conference and kept its hopes alive for a second straight league title.
Set up by a 36-yard pass from Scott McBrien to Steve Suter in the final two minutes, Novak's dream was the easy part. The ordeal was everything else. Used to blowing teams out well in advance of the fourth quarter, Maryland (8-2, 4-1 ACC) was trailing the Wolfpack (9-2, 4-2) in the middle of the third 21-7 before penalties and defensive breakdowns disappeared and the passing game reappeared.
In a game reminiscent of last year's struggle against State in Raleigh, the Terrapins got touchdown runs from McBrien and Bruce Perry over the last 18 minutes. Meanwhile, the defense limited N.C. State's standout quarterback, Philip Rivers, to four completions in 14 passes in the final quarter.
After 40 mediocre minutes, Maryland's closing kick seemed an answer to the challenge coach Ralph Friedgen had issued regarding this game: "Whoever wins has a great season. Whoever doesn't win can have a good season."
The coach seemed satisfied with his team's response yesterday, beating N.C. State in the final minute for the second year in a row, in front of 52,915.
"When you're losing, you pack it up," Friedgen said. "When you're winning, you don't ever think you're going to lose. ... That's what makes winners and that's what makes losers."
Maryland finishes with Clemson, Virginia and Wake Forest. In order for the Terps to earn a share of the ACC title, they'll need Florida State (7-3, 6-0) to lose to North Carolina or N.C. State in its final two games.
For now, the second-place Terps are on track for the Gator Bowl, to be played in Jacksonville, Fla., on Jan. 1.
N.C. State, in the national title hunt as recently as two weeks ago, fell into third place, and faces the likelihood of playing in the Dec. 31 Peach Bowl in Atlanta. Having allowed Georgia Tech to score 15 straight points in a loss last week, the Wolfpack repeated by allowing a 17-0 run here.
"This was the hottest team in the conference, and it took them 60 minutes to beat us," N.C. State coach Chuck Amato said. "If they are the hottest team in football right now, then we're the second-hottest team."
Against a Maryland defense that had been allowing 14.4 points per game, N.C. State had no problem finding the end zone early, particularly with a combination of Rivers and receiver Jericho Cotchery that gave the Terps fits.
Cotchery, who finished with 12 catches for 144 yards, caught a 32-yard touchdown pass along the right sideline for a 7-0 lead with 10:36 left in the first quarter. By the end of the first half, he already had 74 receiving yards, including a 14-yard catch that set up Rivers' 1-yard sneak on fourth-and-goal for a 14-0 lead with 13:48 left in the half.
Maryland limited N.C. State's run game, but Rivers passed for 297 yards by finding spots in the middle of the Terps' defense.
"We were making mistakes and they were capitalizing on them," Maryland defensive back Domonique Foxworth said. "We had a good game plan, we just didn't execute them. When we weren't running our stunts and blitzes as we normally do, he was able to read the blitz and find the open man."
Life wasn't much better on the other side of the ball. Maryland's first series ended on dropped passes by Suter and Jafar Williams, and the team couldn't pass for more than 18 yards in the first half. Also, the Terps had 10 penalties, eight of them for 75 yards in the second half.
The only bright spot was a 64-yard touchdown run by Suter, who had been alerted to his increased use in the offense and took an end-around on the right side and outran everyone to the end zone. Besides that, Maryland went into the locker room with a seven-point deficit. Last year they faced a 9-3 deficit in Raleigh.
"You guys are sleepwalking again," Friedgen said. "We're doing everything we can do to shoot ourselves in the foot and it's only 14-7."
It got worse. Following a Maryland three-and-out, N.C. State drove 66 yards on 11 plays, ending on a 2-yard run by Josh Brown that made it 21-7 with 6:03 left in the third quarter.
But the Terps got two 20-yard-plus receptions by Williams, during a drive wherein Perry's 9-yard run up the middle made it 21-14 with 2:47 left in the period.
"Momentum is a tremendous thing -it's really tough to break," Friedgen said. "You really have to hang in there and believe in each other. Somebody has to come up to make a play to turn things around."
Four things happened. Adam Kiker missed a 28-yard field-goal attempt that would have given N.C. State a 10-point lead with 11:20 left.
Then, after Maryland had a three-and-out, Foxworth intercepted a Rivers pass. His 36-yard return to the Wolfpack 44 set up McBrien's 21-yard touchdown run at the 9:26 mark, which came untouched after a fake to Chris Downs.
On the next series, Foxworth recovered to deflect a pass intended for Cotchery, who had beaten him, preventing a large gain by N.C. State but instead forced fourth down.
Finally, McBrien - who completed 10 of 18 passes for 130 yards - found Suter deep on the right sideline over Lamont Reid for the connection that brought Novak close enough for the winning kick.
"It was kind of a timing thing," McBrien said, "but I saw that Suter had [Reid] on his hip and I threw it up for grabs - it was him or nothing."
Novak - who sent the Georgia Tech game to overtime and won it last year - was hoping he would kick a last-minute field goal to tie last year's N.C. State game.
But Shaun Hill's pass to Guilian Gary won that game with 41 seconds left.
"When he made that great catch, I was preparing for that moment," said Novak, who is now 15-for-18 on field goals. "This year, it came down to me. I'm on a roll and we're on a roll."