BY BRIANA GORMAN

bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668

CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolina safety Deunta Williams said he hadn't experienced a bus ride back to Chapel Hill quite like the one after the Tar Heels upset No. 14 Virginia Tech 20-17 in Blacksburg, Va., on Thursday.

Even though most players were asleep when the bus pulled into campus around 3:30 a.m., there was plenty of celebrating during the first half of the trip.

"For a little while, it was exciting until about an hour and change into it," Williams said on Friday afternoon. "Guys were freestyling, acting crazy. We had to tell these boys to calm down just a little bit."

But it was an exciting evening for the Tar Heels, as they earned their first ACC victory of the season thanks to a 21-yard field goal by Casey Barth as time expired.

The sophomore's game-winning field goal capped a drama-filled fourth quarter that saw Virginia Tech briefly take the lead before UNC rallied to tie and eventually win the game.

"[The bus ride home] was fun," Barth said. "There was a lot of energy. We didn't do much; everybody kind of slept. It was just a good feeling."

Barth's final field goal of the game was set up when Williams recovered a fumble that was forced by teammate Tydreke Powell with 2:02 to play. After the game, Williams said his cell phone was bombarded with calls and text messages, and even his mom had called five times during the game.

"The bad thing about it is my phone was dying so I was like, 'Dag,' " Williams said. "It was a lot of phone calls -- numbers I've never seen. I'm like, 'Who is this? They're like oh, such and such.' But it was fun."

Barth said he called his older brother Connor, who made a 42-yard game-winning field goal over No. 4 Miami five years ago, after the game. Casey said Connor told him he was proud, but Casey still thinks his brother might have an edge in the "whose-kick-was-more-important" competition.

"I think he has one-up on me just because his was a little bit longer and Miami was [No. 4] at the time," Casey said. "But obviously this was a big game too."

Barth and Williams said Friday on campus and in class was a fairly normal day, but they had a few more students come up and congratulate them on the win. Barth said it was "cool" to see the highlights this morning on ESPN, and Williams said he already had replayed almost the entire game.

"It was such a good game," Williams said. "I love great games. Just to be a part of it was fun."

But the defensive back said the celebration wouldn't last too much longer. UNC hosts Duke in a week and still needs two more victories to become bowl eligible.

"We've got a little bit of an extended weekend, seeing that we played on a Thursday night," Williams said. "I guess if the guys really want to celebrate, we can celebrate for two days."