NC State outlasted No. 21 Liberty 15-14 in a low-scoring, back-and-forth affair Saturday night in Carter-Finley Stadium.

The Flames (8-1) were undefeated entering the contest with their best start to a season in program history. The Wolfpack (6-3, 5-3 ACC) had other plans, however, and cemented a winning regular-season record with its second win against a ranked opponent this fall.

"They were playing for a lot tonight,” NC State head coach Dave Doeren said. “For us to get bowl eligible in a game like that, and find a way to win, I am very proud of this football team and this coaching staff.”

“We should be carrying an edge every game. Tonight, their team was playing for a lot. They were playing for a chance to try to elevate their program into the top 20 and be one of those teams that's in the conversation, so they were playing extremely hard and so were we.”

Although NC State found a way to win Saturday, it gave Liberty every opportunity to take control of the game with several self-inflicted wounds.

The Wolfpack committed a season-high 14 penalties for a loss of 123 yards.

“We had to overcome ourselves,” Doeren said. “14 penalties which, obviously, we can't have. I got to get that fixed and the kids got to be more mature. There were a lot of costly ones, but we found a way to win.

“I don't understand why we're jumping offsides on defense. We're literally yelling, with no crowd, at the guys on the sideline, ‘hard count.’ We yelled ‘dojo,’ which means don't jump offsides, and everybody's screaming it. For us to do that multiple times, there's no excuse.”

Despite the mental lapses, the Wolfpack showed resilience — a trait this team has consistently displayed all season.

Four of NC State’s six victories this fall have now come in contests in which it has trailed at some point in the second half.

In a campaign in which the Pack has had to go without several key players due to injury, including starting quarterback Devin Leary for most of it, Doeren saw Saturday as a program-elevating win.

“I'm just so proud of these guys,” Doeren said. “Everything that's come at them, they've responded. People have doubted this football team all year. For us to now sit here with six wins and two top 25 says a lot about them.

"I think anytime we see adversity in our program, we look at it as an opportunity. An opportunity to grow, an opportunity to prove people wrong. We carry a big chip on our shoulder, and tonight I think the guys flipped it where it was the defense's turn to win the game."

Prior to Saturday, Liberty was ranked No. 18 among FBS programs with an average of 490.9 total yards of offense per game and had the nation’s 12th best run offense averaging 254.5 rushing yards per contest.

Liberty was even better against ACC opponents. It averaged 293.5 rushing yards per game in road wins over Virginia Tech and Syracuse.

NC State extinguished the Flames’ explosive offense, however. The Wolfpack held Liberty to 279 yards of total offense and only 107 rushing yards.

“It was awesome to see those kids rise up against a really good Liberty offense, an offensive that was averaging 49 points a game,” Doeren said. “To hold them to 14 points and 279 yards is pretty epic. It was a great performance by that side of the football.

"Our goal tonight was to get the ball back for our offense and make their defense have to beat us. You guys saw how they control the clock, so we knew that by going three and out, or having takeaways as we call them on defense, that we could run the football.”

The key to the strong defensive performance started with containing Flames star quarterback Malik Willis.

Willis averaged 234 passing yards and 109.3 rushing yards per contest prior to Saturday and had thrown 15 touchdown passes and just one interception through seven games.

Willis scored both of Liberty’s touchdowns but was held to 172 passing yards and 44 rushing yards by the Wolfpack.

“We knew he was a great athlete,” redshirt junior linebacker and team captain Isaiah Moore said. “He can throw, he can run it. We just tried to give him some different looks and get him to hold that ball a little bit longer than he wanted to.

“He got a little bit rattled early and then we were able to kind of dial up blitzes from there. We just kept mixing it up on him to make it hard for him to read what coverage we were in.”

Willis also threw three interceptions against the hungry Wolfpack secondary.

All three of NC State’s interceptions were reeled in by underclassmen for career-firsts.

Sophomore safety Jakeen Harris came down with the first in the second quarter despite junior safety Tanner Ingle picking up a targeting penalty after the turnover which left the Pack without its star safety for most of the game.

Freshman Aydan White and redshirt sophomore safety Isaac Duffy intercepted Willis on consecutive drives in the fourth quarter, which both proved to be crucial in the one-point victory.

The Wolfpack won the turnover margin three-to-one, but the three interceptions weren’t the only occasions in which the ‘Takeaway Bone’ was pulled out.

Trailing 14-7 with 3:42 to go in the third quarter, Moore tackled Liberty running back Peytton Pickett for a three-yard loss in the Flames end zone for NC State’s first safety of the season.

“I felt like we needed a spark,” Moore said. “I told the guys before we went out, 'We're going to win this game, we're going to find a way to win.’ The offense was going to score and we're not going to give the lead back. We definitely needed a spark, and I was happy I was able to go and make a play.”

“We were able to flip the field and pin them which resulted in a safety by Isaiah, which was a huge play in the game to win by one,” Doeren added. “The safety was part of that victory and that was a huge play field-position wise. Our defense and special teams won and that's two-thirds of the game”.

The final Pack takeaway proved to be the knockout punch to the Flames’ Cinderella season.

On fourth-and-five from the NC State 24-yard line, Liberty attempted a 39-yard field goal with 1:24 remaining in the game. For the third time this year, redshirt junior linebacker Vi Jones blocked a kick on special teams in a crucial moment for the Wolfpack.

This time, it was a game-winner.

“It was a desperation block,” Jones said. “We go in, and I'm the jumper. I just jumped as high as I could. I remember seeing the ball coming and boom, it hits me right on my elbow. I was like, 'Oh, I blocked it, I blocked it!'”

Liberty is 12-0 under head coach Hugh Freeze when it outrushes its opponent. Unlike its regular-season record, the Flames remained undefeated in that particular statistic Saturday night.

NC State gained 167 rushing yards and only allowed Liberty to run for 107 yards.

Sophomore running back Zonovan “Bam” Knight led the Wolfpack in rushing with 96 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries. He also had a team-high five receptions for 34 yards.

Junior running back Ricky Person Jr. also had a strong night with 83 yards on 14 carries and two receptions for 17 yards.

The Wolfpack appeared to be cruising towards its best rushing performance of the season heading to the locker room with 156 first-half rushing yards, but the Pack struggled to move the ball after the break and netted -18 rushing yards in the third quarter.

NC State was able to seal the victory with 29 fourth-quarter rushing yards, however, including Knight’s four-yard touchdown run with 6:53 remaining in the contest.

“It was extremely frustrating, but I'm glad that in the fourth quarter we were able to get the ball moving a little bit,” Knight said. “That drive when I scored in the fourth quarter, that was the determining factor in the game, so I'm glad we were able to start getting that push.”

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