Backup Davenport Leads Tar Heels

Another subpar performance by Chris Keldorf was nothing that No. 7 North Carolina couldn’t overcome.

Backup quarterback Oscar Davenport threw for two touchdowns and 116 yards as the Tar Heels extended their home winning streak to seven games with a 28-17 victory over No. 17 Stanford Saturday night.

Keldorf, voted the top quarterback in the Atlantic Coast Conference last year, had three passes intercepted in North Carolina’s season opener, a 23-6 victory over Indiana. He looked uncomfortable again against Stanford, completing eight of 12 passes for only 42 yards.

Davenport, inserted for two possessions in the first half and three in the second, completed his first nine passes on the way to a 12-for-14 performance. He led a pair of long touchdown drives, including the score that put North Carolina ahead to stay early in the fourth quarter.

The Cardinal (1-1) was limited to 43 yards rushing and 191 passing but kept it close through three quarters by scoring 10 points off a pair of miscues by North Carolina’s special teams.

Davenport and the North Carolina defense helped end Stanford’s six-game winning streak, which had tied the Cardinal with Penn State and Tennessee for the longest such stretch in the nation.

Stanford quarterback Chad Hutchinson, held to 52 passing yards in the first half, directed a 60-yard drive early in the third quarter that tied it at 14-14. Hutchinson completed two of three passes for 34 yards on the drive before scoring on a five-yard bootleg.

North Carolina freshman Domonique Williams fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Stanford’s Greg Comella recovered, giving the Cardinal the ball at the Tar Heels’ 15. Three plays later, Kevin Miller’s 27-yard field goal gave Stanford its final lead.

Davenport led the decisive drive, a nine-play, 76-yard march that ended when he found Octavus Barnes alone in the back of the end zone for a 15-yard scoring pass that made it 21-17 with 12:15 remaining.

North Carolina’s Quinton Savage blocked a punt by Kevin Miller later in the quarter, and Antwon Black scooped it up and went seven yards for the final score.