End zone.

Coleman’s joy turned to dismay when a hand reached from behind him, grabbed tight hold of his jersey and pulled him down to the turf inches shy of the goal line. The hand belonged to North Carolina’s Errol Hood, who saved the Tar Heels in a dramatic 10-6 win over rival N.C. State Thursday night at Ericsson Stadium.

Hood’s strong grasp with 1:28 left in the game extended NorthCarolina’s winning streak over its Atlantic Coast Conference rival to seven years. The exciting and improbable finish also added one more chapter to the teams’ series in Charlotte — last year UNCwon 37-34 in overtime after State rallied for a tie with 21 fourth-quarter points.

“It came down to the last drive. We just came up short, inches again,”said Barnette, the Wolfpack’s senior quarterback. “I thought he was in there, when he stretched across the white plain of the goal line, I thought the ball went across. I thought he still got the ball across even if his feet didn’t get across.”

But with Hood in the picture, Coleman wasn’t going anywhere.

“When he caught the ball, I held on with all my life. All my fingers are jammed and I still held on to him,”Hood said. “If he’d scored that touchdown I’d have been feeling so bad riding back to Chapel Hill.”

Instead, the Tar Heels (2-8 overall, 1-6 ACC) broke a seven-game losing streak and salvaged a terrible season with a win on national television in front of 41,159 fans in Charlotte. State now reloads for No. 24 East Carolina next Saturday in a game the Wolfpack (6-5, 3-5) must win to become bowl eligible.

The stunning night started and ended with a fired-up Heels defense, ranked eighth in the league allowing nearly 400 yards a game. Carl Torbush’s team limited Barnette to just 20-of-40 passing for 210 yards, while State’s ground game earned only 83 yards on 31 carries (2.7 yards per rush).

North Carolina’s intensity level early in the game set up the late heroics. State punted after three plays on its first two possessions and ended the first quarter with 18 yards of total offense.

The Tar Heels looked solid, especially for a team ranked last in the league in offense and starting its fourth-string quarterback. With Ronald Curry out for the season and backup Luke Huard playing poorly, converted tailback Domonique Williams completed his first pass for 45 yards to Kory Bailey. Once in State territory,Deon Dyer moved the chains and, on third-and-8, Williams rolled out and found Dyer for a 12-yard touchdown strike.

The TD was Carolina’s first in 10 quarters after last week’s 19-3 defeat at Wake and an embarrassing 28-3 showing against I-AA Furman in Chapel Hill.

“It starts from the first drive. Domonique led the team, we scored a touchdown and that gave us energy right there,”Hood said. “We had said if we’re in this game, we start out winning, then we can win this game. If they get up early on us it seemed like the fellas’ heads would drop.”

Kent Passingham pulled State closer with a 28-yard field goal midway through the second quarter, but Carolina held a 7-3 lead at halftime.

While the Wolfpack punted three times in the third quarter, Carolina continued to move the ball. Josh McGee missed his first field-goal attempt from 32 yards early in the period, then connected from the same distance with 6:15 left in the third for a 10-3 Carolina lead.

Finally, Barnette and the State offense started driving. Barnette threw for 99 of his yards in the fourth quarter and put Passingham in range for a 26-yarder that made it 10-6 Carolina with 11:30 remaining.

On its final possession, the Wolfpack got the ball back on its own 9-yard line. Barnette converted two first-down scrambles and two passes to set up first-and-goal at the 8. The first pass sailed incomplete, a touch high. Koren Robinson caught the next ball across the middle and was tackled at the 1. On third down, Barnette pitched an option back to freshman Carlos Doggett, who dropped the ball and fell on it at the 9.

Timeout, State.

A last-gasp fourth-and-goal effort got off to a great start when the Carolina defense jumped offsides. Barnette, knowing he had a free play, threw a pass toward a wide-open Coleman in the back of the end zone, but Robinson was cutting across the field, got a hand on the ball trying to make the catch and tipped it past the intended receiver.

The penalty moved the ball 5 yards closer. Then Coleman got 3 yards closer. And Hood stood his ground, with the help of a big hit from safety David Bomar, on the final six inches.

“I felt like I was going to get in,”Coleman said. “I consider myself a pretty stout athlete, and for someone to pull me down from behind … it seemed like I lost my footing in the slippery turf and he just pulled me down, sort of bent me back and I reached out as far as I could get.