CHAPEL HILL — Hard. Tough. Together.

It’s the motto that head coach Dave Doeren has preached throughout his 12 years as head coach of NC State football. And there may not be a better example of it than the final two minutes of NC State’s rivalry week matchup against UNC-Chapel Hill.

Down 30-29 with just 59 seconds remaining on its own 39-yard line, the Wolfpack found itself in a self-dug hole. A holding penalty forced the red-and-white into a first-and-20 situation as Kenan Stadium erupted into screams and applause, believing it was in a position to win the game against its Tobacco Road rivals.

Moments earlier, the Wolfpack defense allowed Carolina to score a go-ahead touchdown in just three plays, giving the NC State offense little time to prepare.

Potential game-winning drives hadn’t been kind to the Wolfpack all season. In its last game against Georgia Tech, the Pack missed a game-winning field goal as time expired. In a home matchup against Wake Forest, freshman quarterback CJ Bailey showed his inexperience, throwing a game-sealing interception.

In a hostile environment, NC State had its back against the wall. But Doeren kept the faith.

“I said that we’re gonna go win the game,” Doeren said. “I was standing right next to one of the defensive coaches when [UNC] scored those points and said, ‘Don’t worry. We’re gonna go win the game right now.’ I have total belief in our offense.”

Bailey dropped back to pass, unloading to a double-covered redshirt-freshman wide receiver Noah Rogers deep down the field — the same player who had dropped two simple catches earlier in the game that forced NC State to punt.

Many thought Bailey made a crucial error, potentially repeating his mistakes against Wake Forest and sealing the Wolfpack’s fate.

In a cluster of bodies, it was nearly impossible to track the ball. It appeared as though the high-arcing ball had been intercepted, but the miraculous happened — Rogers came down with the ball amid the chaos.

“It’s football,” Rogers said. “Things are never going to go your way. All I can keep telling myself is that I’m gonna have to fight through it and at the end of the day, everything is gonna work out.”

Three plays later, redshirt freshman Hollywood Smothers punched in the game-winning touchdown and gave NC State the win it fought tooth and nail for.

“We told the defensive guys that we got them,” Bailey said. “Don’t come to the sideline with your head down. [The offense] got their back like they had ours in the first half. That’s NC State football — we’ve got each other’s back.”

The catch epitomized the Wolfpack’s mentality in its 35-30 victory over the Tar Heels — the same headstrong mentality that head coach Dave Doeren continues to preach to his team.

“It’s the foundation of our program,” said graduate defensive end Davin Vann. “No matter what we go through, we’re gonna fight as hard as we can and continue battling and finding a way to win. I saw that in our offense. We put them in a bad situation in those last two minutes, and they just went down the field and continued hammering away, making plays.”

Doeren has been the subject of controversy for the majority of the season. After being projected as one of the stronger teams in the ACC, the Wolfpack failed expectations after falling to 5-6 through 11 games. Battling through injuries, questionable losses and calls for his firing, Doeren stayed focused on the task at hand.

“We’ve had a lot of crazy stuff happen this year,” Doeren said. “You lose your starting quarterback to start the season. You lose your middle linebacker. We lose some tough one-possession games and some flukey things happen. Everything that could go against us at times has, and the guys just fought. That’s the DNA of this program. Adversity is going to happen. Life’s not fair. What are you going to do about it? These grown men just get up and fight.”

Everyone is welcome to their own opinions on Doeren’s tenure, but one thing is for certain — Doeren knows how to handle the baby blue team down the road.

“When I got hired, they didn’t say, ‘Win six games and go to a bowl,’” Doeren said. “They said, ‘Whatever you do, beat Carolina.’ And we did that for the fourth year in a row. That means a lot to me and our program. There’s a reason I haven’t been allowed to wear blue for 12 years. This game is deep. It means a lot to our fan base and definitely to me as the head coach to say that I’m 8-4 in this rivalry.”

Both teams entered the matchup with their own challenges. For the Wolfpack, it risked missing a bowl game for just the third time in the Doeren era. A win was necessary to become bowl-eligible and earn a postseason matchup. For the Tar Heels, they had fired head coach Mack Brown just four days earlier, confirming that Saturday’s bout would be his final regular season game.

The game began as a near-spectator sport. Neither team could develop any offensive momentum, resulting in four consecutive punts. On its third drive, the Wolfpack finally began to develop its offensive attack, but an endzone interception from Bailey flipped the momentum. Just three plays later, Vann bulldozed his way through the offensive line, reaching UNC quarterback Jacolby Criswell and forcing a fumble that put the Wolfpack offense at Carolina’s 11-yard line.

“We talked about setting the tone,” Vann said. “I wanted to set the tone early. It meant a lot to be able to start that and have the offense go down and score off of that play.”

Tempers began to flare as no hatred was lost between the two teams. The animosity revealed itself as both teams got into multiple scuffles following a pass interference call against UNC. The fighting resulted in every player receiving an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. However, the Wolfpack was unfazed and drew first blood with Smothers’ first rushing touchdown.

After more punting from both teams, the Tar Heels finally got on the board with a 17-yard strike to receiver JJ Jones, but couldn’t tie the game due to a missed PAT. To make matters worse, after finally creating another scoring opportunity on its next drive, UNC kicker Noah Burnette once again missed another kick, this time a 43-yard field goal that went wide-right.

Entering the locker room with a 7-6 score, it looked as though the second half would be more of the same. But spectators would’ve never predicted the shootout it witnessed in the second half. After UNC was held to a three-and-out on its first drive, NC State responded with a field goal to extend its lead to 10-6.

The Tar Heels retaliated with a 75-yard touchdown run from star running back Omarion Hampton on the first play of the drive, forcing the Wolfpack into a deficit for the first time in the game. The offense once again sputtered out in UNC territory, resulting in another field goal.

UNC took full control of the momentum swing, burning NC State with another big play, this time through the air with a 50-yard touchdown pass to Chris Culliver. But finally, toward the end of the third quarter, the Wolfpack put together a complete drive from start to finish. After a combined 46 yards on three consecutive plays to Smothers, Bailey found freshman tight end Dante Daniels in the endzone for his first collegiate touchdown, tying the game at 20 apiece.

“It’s something with these rivalry games,” Bailey said. “Everybody is way more upbeat and motivated to get the task done. In that second half, it really kicked in that we’ve got a chance to pull away and win this game.”

The Wolfpack defense yet again gave up another large play that put the Tar Heels in striking distance of the endzone, but held them to a field goal, giving the offense a chance to finally retake the lead. When his team needed him most, sophomore wide receiver KC Concepcion finally made his mark on the game, recording his first catch of the game midway through the fourth quarter en route to a lead-taking 13-yard touchdown reception.

But of course, just when things began to look up for the Wolfpack, the snap was bobbled on the PAT, forcing a miss and breaking NC State’s nation-leading 287 consecutive PAT-made streak, giving the Wolfpack a six-point lead instead of seven, a miss that nearly came back to haunt it.

Hampton took over on the ensuing drive, and in just three plays, took the ball the full 75 yards into the endzone himself, allowing UNC to take a one-point lead. Hampton had 263 of the Tar Heels’ 468 total yards, mustering everything he could to try to beat the Wolfpack once in his collegiate career.

The attempt fell short, and following Rogers’ and Smothers’ respective plays, UNC was forced to attempt a circus-like final play consisting of multiple desperate laterals, but it was too little too late.

As the clock expired, the Wolfpack rushed the field, led by Vann, who planted the flag at centerfield. In his final collegiate regular season game, Vann secured a win against his rivals and cemented a 4-0 record against the Tar Heels.

“Not a lot of people can say that,” Vann said. “It’s been fun being able to whoop on them every year.”

By earning its sixth win, NC State football will have one final matchup, determined by the College Football Playoff committee on Dec. 8.