John Dunlap decided he needed to pray. This time, it was in his team’s ACC opener and there were only seconds remaining with a desperation heave headed his direction.

The situation was a moment he knew could change the season and Carter-Finley Stadium’s history.

“I was just praying the whole time,” Dunlap said. “I was just thinking Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, please let me get the ball.”

With the ball in the air, Dunlap positioned himself in front of Boston College junior cornerback DeJuan Tribble. Then as the ball fluttered in, Dunlap leaped.

And after juggling the pass in the back corner of the end zone, the junior wide receiver found a way to come down with the football.

“That’s a guy with a 40-inch vertical,” sophomore running back Andre Brown said of Dunlap. “He’s about 6-foot-2. I’d throw it up there to him.”

Sophomore quarterback Daniel Evans, who made his first start, lofted the ball to Dunlap, who had one-on-one coverage.

“I just put it up there and John Dunlap went up there and caught it at its highest point like you’re taught to do every day at practice,” Evans said.

However, to add even more apprehension to the game, the catch would be reviewed.

“Why would they review it? Because we’re N.C. State?” coach Chuck Amato asked jokingly. “It’s something that they review all touchdowns. There was one down there in that end zone a couple weeks ago too.”

But Amato said the team was certain Dunlap had ended up with the ball in the end zone. He was right as the referees did not overturn the original call.

“We had something go our way,” Amato said.

The catch gave State (2-2, 1-0) a 17-15 win against Boston College and put them in a tie for first place in the Atlantic Division with Wake Forest.

It was exactly what the Wolfpack needed and hadn’t seen in a while — a little luck.

“To win a game like that you have to have some luck,” Amato said. “And you have to have balls bounce your way and everything else. It could have gone either way.”

After stopping Boston College on the ensuing kickoff return, the team stormed the field. As Evans started his walk off the sideline, he and junior quarterback Marcus Stone found each other. They embraced and celebrated the victory.

Before the drive, senior cornerback A.J. Davis said he had a feeling the team was going to come back.

“It was crazy,” Davis said. “It was so much excitement. We could feel it coming — you could just feel it. You know when you’re about to drive and win.”

Dunlap said he would never forget the feeling after the catch.

“When I came to the sidelines, I couldn’t really hear anything because everyone was hitting me in the head,” Dunlap said. “So I was kind of dazed.”

But Amato, who is in his seventh season as coach, knew the game could have gone either way.

“It shows anything can happen on one of those Hail Mary plays,” Amato.

And redshirt senior linebacker Patrick Lowery, who said the team “deserved every win they could get because of bad breaks in the past,” understood the importance of the one play for everyone involved.

“We’re looking at 1-3 with about 45 seconds left, and with eight seconds left we are looking at 2-2,” Lowery said.