By By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Sports Writer
MIAMI — Jacory Harris threw three touchdown passes to move into second place on Miami’s career list, Damien Berry ran for his fourth straight game of 100-plus yards and the 25th-ranked Hurricanes scored 30 straight points to easily get past North Carolina 33-10 on Saturday night.
Berry finished with 109 yards and a touchdown for the Hurricanes (5-2, 3-1 Atlantic Coast Conference). LaRon Byrd, Travis Benjamin and Leonard Hankerson had touchdown catches for Miami and Sean Spence forced a key fumble in the opening quarter to deny North Carolina a touchdown.
Johnny White had a 76-yard touchdown run for North Carolina (4-3, 2-2), the longest carry for the Tar Heels in more than nine years. White’s score gave North Carolina a 10-3 lead in the second quarter, before Miami took over and denied the Tar Heels’ bid for their first five-game winning streak since 2001.
Harris completed 21 of 32 passes for 217 yards for Miami. T.J. Yates was 12 of 21 for 140 yards and two interceptions for North Carolina, which got 85 yards from White and 71 more from Shaun Draughn.
Miami sacked Yates five times, a season-worst for North Carolina.
Miami had lost to North Carolina in each of the past three seasons, and picked a good time to finally end that streak.
The win moved the Hurricanes into outright possession of second place in the Coastal Division, a game behind Virginia Tech — while everyone else in the division now has at least two conference losses.
Harris increased his career total to 50 TD passes. He came into Saturday tied for fourth on the career list with Gino Torretta, then passed Vinny Testaverde and Steve Walsh (both of whom had 48) when Benjamin made an acrobatic play for a score early in the third quarter. Benjamin leaped for a catch while getting hit, never going to the ground, then spun and ran into the end zone.
From there, the Hurricanes started to roll.
Yates came into the night leading the nation in lowest interception percentage; his streak of 95 straight passes without getting picked off ended when Miami’s Brandon Harris had a takeaway to end the ensuing Tar Heels’ drive.
Yates threw another interception to Ramon Buchanan early in the fourth, and Berry plunged in from 2 yards out seven plays later to wrap things up for Miami.
North Carolina struck first, settling for a 19-yard field goal from Casey Barth on its opening drive even though Yates had completions of 34 and 26 yards on consecutive plays. And when Harris was intercepted by Da’Norris Searcy on the first play of Miami’s ensuing drive, the Hurricanes seemed to be reeling.
Tar Heels coach Butch Davis apparently sensed the same, and a fourth-down sneak by Yates gave North Carolina a first down at the Miami 9. Yates connected on the next play with Anthony Elzy, who appeared to be headed toward a score — until Spence knocked the ball free, Vaughn Telemaque caught the carom in the end zone, and Miami escaped unscathed.
White made at least a half-dozen Miami defenders miss while breaking loose on the long touchdown run that was North Carolina’s longest carry since Sept. 1, 2001, a span of 4,054 carries according to STATS LLC.
But Byrd’s 6-yard touchdown catch gave Miami a 13-10 lead at intermission, and the Hurricanes controlled the second half.