It has been a tough year for Boston College and that's putting it mildly, but Jeff Hafley notched a significant and surprising upset win against NC State in Raleigh on Saturday.

After falling behind by 14 in the blink of an eye, it felt as if we had another Florida State or Virginia Tech game on our hands. Instead, the defense turned in a performance that may go down in BC history as one of the best ever and freshman Emmett Morehead hit classmate Joe Griffin for a two yard touchdown with 18 seconds left. Connor Lytton added a PAT and the Eagles stunned the No. 16 Wolfpack 21-20.

The win is BC’s first against a Top 25 ranked opponent since 2014 and also snapped N.C. State’s 16-game home winning streak. BC is now 3-7 and will be riding a huge wave of momentum into the Holy War matchup against Notre Dame next Saturday.

“Really proud of our guys, pretty emotional in the locker room right there,” Hafley said postgame. “We went down pretty quickly. That’s a really good team. Obviously, the 16th-ranked team in the country, probably the best defense I’ve watched…went down early, gave up two quick scores, but we fought.

“The whole message is our guys didn’t quit. Our guys believed they were going to win this game. They did. They felt momentum after last week and built off it. Even though they went down, they continued to fight, that’s a credit to our team.”

The Eagles’ defense forced four turnovers and held the Wolfpack to just 135 yards passing (335 yards total), but none of it would have mattered had they not forced a punt with 2:47 remaining. BC trailed 20-14 and got the ball at its own 31. Morehead (29-48/330/3/2) and the offense methodically moved down field, until he was sacked on second and six at the N.C. State 25.

Facing third and 12, Morehead - who was phenomenal all day on third downs - hit George Takacs for 17 yards down to the Wolfpack’s 14.Moments later, it appeared that N.C. State got a fourth down stop to seal the game, but pass interference was called, giving BC the ball at the two. Morehead hit Griffin with a back shoulder throw the two have worked on hundreds of times and Lytton added the PAT. Marcus Valdez - who may have had his best game in his Eagles’ career - picked off a lateral attempt as time expired to ice the win.

“Six years, two get a ranked win, it’s all been worth it,” Valdez said. “That’s probably the best game, the funnest game I’ve ever played here. Before that, it was probably some of those Clemson games a couple years ago…you could feel the belief. On defense, it was the same belief we felt in those games. The offense, that last drive, I mean, come on. That’s big time. A lot of people making big plays and that’s what you need to win."

“I think it’s real easy to get caught up in the outside pressures of the situation, the crowd noise and all that stuff, but when it boils down to it, it’s just executing your job, it’s no different than any other part of the game,” Morehead said of the final drive. “It just becomes more important. I was really happy with how our O-line strained and protected for that extra half second to get the ball out and guys making plays across the board.“It’s really fun. It’s really fun to play when guys are excited and the ball is moving.”

N.C. State jumped out to the 14-0 lead less 10 minutes in, but BC cut it to 14-7 late in the first when Zay Flowers (7/130/2) caught a 17 yard TD pass. Flowers also set the record for most yards as a BC receiver.

“I mean, honestly, I just wanted to win,” Flowers said about breaking the record. “I wasn’t even paying attention to what was going on. I was just focused on getting a win. I broke it, so it’s just like, let’s go try and get the other two (games remaining) and finish the right way.”

N.C. State kicked a late field goal to take a 17-7 lead at the half, but given how things had started and the fact that BC punted five times in the half and Morehead threw an interception, it was basically best case scenario.

The Wolfpack went up 20-7 with another field goal early in the third, but the Eagles responded with an eight play, 75 yard drive that ended with Zay doing his thing, catching a short pass and taking it 35 yards to the house. N.C. State fumbled its next possession, but Morehead gave it back with an interception five plays later.

The back and forth nature continued, including a huge interception by Elijah Jones with 6:37 left. The teams traded punts before Morehead led the final drive.

This one singular win won’t make BC bowl eligible or anything like that, but for a young team, getting a victory like this shows that the hard work pays off. The team needed to see that what the staff has been preaching worked and they finally did.

“Our players deserved that,” added Hafley. “They needed it. They needed some validation that all this hard work and everything we’re preaching to them is going to pay off and they got that today. That’s what makes me the most happy. I wanted this for the players. They need to feel moments like this. The amount of hard work they put in and the buy-in, the studying and just fitting through everything.

“That’s validation that things are going to come out and we’re going to come out of this storm okay. We have a very bright future here.”