RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Nate Sheppard went up the middle for a 69-yard touchdown on his first carry while Andrew Pellicciotta returned a missed field goal from the back of one end zone to the other for a half-ending touchdown as Duke beat N.C. State 41-3 on Saturday.
Going back to Duke's rout of Boston College last weekend, the Blue Devils have now won their last two games by a combined margin of 88-5.
“When you have a dominant win like we had a week ago ... normally there’s some sort of letdown and you start to believe things are easy, winning is easy,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “It’s never easy. I thought the team just improved from last week. I think that was the mindset all week: let’s find a way to get better. And that’s what they did."
Sheppard ran for 217 yards and three touchdowns, his latest huge output as the offensive centerpiece for the Blue Devils (7-2, 4-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) and one of the nation's top rushers. By the end of the day, that rushing output had matched the Wolfpack's entire yardage total.
Then came Pellicciotta's “Kick Six” play in the safety's return from a lower-body injury that had sidelined him for two games. After N.C. State's Kanoah Vinesett came up short on a 50-yard field goal to end the first half, Pellicciotta caught it at the back of the end zone and brought it out, first to the left side, then cutting across the field to the right with multiple blockers ahead of him.
The sophomore then cut back slightly inside of a would-be tackler to complete that incredible run to the end zone for a 31-3 lead that had boos cascading down in the Wolfpack's Carter-Finley Stadium.
Pellicciotta was credited with a 100-yard return officially, though it was closer to 109 yards as a true length-of-the-field run.
Jaivon Solomon also took a short pass from Walker Eget and shruggled off a tackler for an 18-yard TD shortly before halftime for Duke.
The Wolfpack (4-5, 2-4) sputtered offensively and struggled to get stops in an ugly home loss. N.C. State's 217 total yards included 32 yards rushing on 25 attempts, as well as converting 3 of 14 third downs.
“I’ve got great young men that are still willing to fight, that are hurting in that locker room,” N.C. State interim coach Todd Goebbel said. “Coaches have done a great job of sticking with it. We’re all together, and we’re going to continue down that road.”
This marked Duke's sixth win in seven meetings between instate ACC neighbors.
Duke: The Blue Devils have regrouped from consecutive losses to Georgia Tech and rival North Carolina by a combined seven points. And it was another standout performance for Sheppard, coming in a week when the program launched a Heisman Trophy campaign for him. He entered Saturday ranked fifth in the Bowl Subdivision ranks (121.5) and third in rushing scores (14), then struck a Heisman pose on his quick scoring run to kickstart Duke's romp.
N.C. State: The offense was expected to be a strength while being led by third-year starting quarterback CJ Bailey. But this marked the Wolfpack's third game this year with 14 or fewer points and N.C.State didn't cross the 200-yard mark until the final minute with the outcome long since decided. It also marked N.C. State's first game without a touchdown since losing at Duke 24-3 in October 2023.
The Wolfpack fell to 1-1 under Goebbel, who became the interim coach after the Oct. 24 firing of longtime coach Dave Doeren. This one came amid the backrop of N.C. State having discussions with program great and retired NFL QB Philip Rivers — who has been coaching in the high school ranks in Alabama — to potentially take over.
Duke: The Blue Devils visit No. 1 Miami next Saturday, marking a reunion with Hurricanes quarterback Darian Mensah from Duke's ACC title winner last year.
N.C. State: Syracuse visits the Wolfpack next Saturday.
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Duke's Javen Nicholas (5) is knocked out of bounds by North Carolina State's Jaren Sensabaugh (14) and Brody Barnhardt (29) during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged Uruguayans on Saturday to build bridges of fraternity and faith, as he delivered an ode to the region’s beloved mate tea and raised the profile of the Catholic Church in its most secular country.
After arriving Friday, Leo spent his first full day in Uruguay pointing to the church’s historic roots in the country and the work it’s doing today. He visited a Catholic university and a violence-ravaged neighborhood of Montevideo where church groups have built homes, provided job opportunities and run drug rehabilitation programs.
The aim, on the first stop of his three-nation South American tour, is to propose the Catholic faith as a response to today's challenges and the church a willing helper in a country where even Catholic holidays have secular names and God cannot be mentioned in oaths of office.
Leo traveled first to Paysandú, in western Uruguay on the border with Argentina, for his first Mass in South America. The Vatican said 40,000 people -- many from Uruguay but also from neighboring Argentina and Brazil – came out, despite the morning rain and blustery gray skies.
The crowd erupted in the stadium chant of “Olé, olé, olé, olé, pope, pope!” when Leo’s plane landed in Paysandú, around 375 kilometers (230 miles) from the capital, Montevideo. They cheered again, blew horns and waved yellow handkerchiefs when he arrived in his open-sided popemobile at the Mass site in a park.
Speaking to the crowd in Spanish, Leo reminded them that the Catholic faith had been “part of the life of the Uruguayan people since their earliest days, and it must be passed on to future generations with creative courage!”
Because of its accessible location on the Uruguay River, the city was chosen to host Leo’s first Mass at the start of his three-nation South American tour that was in doubt after he underwent lung cancer surgery on Oct. 13.
“He’s the representative of Christ but he’s human. And we weren’t sure if he could make it, but he pushed through for us,” said Soledad Sánchez, 73, who had driven to Paysandú from northern Uruguay, her eyes filling with tears. “He made it here to give us a message of peace because he knows our world needs it right now.”
Leo, who arrived in Uruguay on Friday, asked the faithful to build bridges of fraternity, recalling the nearby bridge over the Uruguay River that connects Uruguay and Argentina and over which many pilgrims crossed to attend the Mass.
He also pointed to the ritual of drinking mate, the bitter herbal tea that Uruguayans and their neighbors carry everywhere, as a poignant symbol of unity and encounter that he suggested should be applied to spreading the faith.
“It teaches us to share and to be together, strengthening the bonds that unite us as brothers and sisters,” he said. “It is a sign of welcome, integration and shared values.”
Mate, a cherished national symbol in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, is above all a sharing ritual. The leaves are steeped in a hollowed gourd and the drink is sipped through a metal straw called a bombilla, and the gourd passes from hand to hand among friends, family and sometimes strangers, refilled for hours.
Everyone drinks from the same straw, and Uruguayans drink more mate per person than people anywhere else, roughly 9 kilograms (about 20 pounds) of the dried leaf a year, according to industry estimates.
“We must reflect on these symbols that we share, which give us identity and a sense of belonging, which speak to us of our origins and point us toward the future,” Leo said.
The message landed.
“I’m not religious. I’d never go to Mass if it weren’t the pope, but he surprised me. He made it appealing, the way he talked about things we all have in common, like mate,” said Jorge Monzón, 64, from Paysandú. “I personally felt a sense of communion.”
Leo pressed the message of the church's commitment to helping Uruguayans later Saturday by visiting Casavalle, a Montevideo area of small neighborhood s beset by drug trafficking and gang violence. In Borro, the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish builds homes and supports addicts in their recovery, with donations including from The Papal Foundation, the U.S.-based group of wealthy Catholics who fund special papal projects.
In his remarks in Borro, Leo praised the work church groups were doing and said Christians must commit themselves to the charity and closeness shown by the biblical figure of the good Samaritan, “who did not remain indifferent upon seeing misfortune, but took responsibility for his brother’s life.”
“We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that there are children in Uruguay who do not go to school for fear of never returning home,” he said. “We cannot silence our conscience when we see a mother lacking the means to feed her children. We cannot ignore the many people around us who are suffering, alone and vulnerable.”
Uruguay has universal access to primary school and enrolls nearly all its children, but only about half of Uruguayans finish high school, one of the lowest rates in Latin America, according to the National Institute for Educational Evaluation. The graduation rate is even worse for children from the poorest households, where only one in four graduate compared to nearly nine out of 10 from the wealthiest families.
Jonathan Tropiano, 28, is one of the many in the area whose lives were transformed by the church.
He dreamed of becoming a rapper but was arrested after falling into crime and violence. Once out of the prison, at the age of 20, Tropiano became closer and closer to the local church.
“My life was horrible, with so much suffering. But then I found God and that was when I started to be a better person,” he said.
Saturday was Leo's only full day in Uruguay before heading Sunday afternoon to Argentina for the second leg of his trip, which was to end next week in his second homeland of Peru.
Many Argentines, though, took advantage of the Paysandú Mass to see him since it was located just across a bridge from the eastern Argentine city of Colón and was closer than any of his Argentine stops in Buenos Aires, Luján and Córdoba.
“Argentina is a much more religious country than Uruguay, and there’s this desire to be here to witness something historic,” said Luciana Lobato, 20, an Argentine tour agent who organized buses for 180 pilgrims from across the border.
Winfield and Batschke reported from Montevideo, Uruguay. Ramiro Barreiro in Montevideo contributed.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Faithful drink mate, a traditional South American herbal infusion, as they follow Pope Leo XIV presiding over Mass at Parque París Londres in Paysandú, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026, on the second day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful during Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass at Parque París Londres in Paysandú, Uruguay, on the second day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV blesses a child as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello
Pope Leo XIV waves after celebrating vespers at the Cathedral in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)
Pope Leo XIV is transported to the Cathedral in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and seminarians at the Metropolitan Cathedral, in Montevideo, Uruguay, on the first day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and seminarians at the Metropolitan Cathedral, in Montevideo, Uruguay, on the first day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV waves after celebrating vespers at the Cathedral in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)
Catholic faithful hold an Argentine flag bearing images of the late Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV as they wait for Pope Leo XIV to arrive to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
