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CHAPEL HILL -- The North Carolina football program passed out well produced, glossy brochures to prospective recruits entitled "The Future Is Now" on Saturday afternoon. Nice concept. The future, it appears, will have to wait at least a week.

The Tar Heels lost a chance at a potentially defining victory when they fell 20-17 to Virginia Tech with a combination of costly turnovers and often needless penalties that gave the Hokies life when they seemed to have none. For UNC (2-1, 0-1 ACC), the ugly truth was written in 13 flags, four of which facilitated the visitors' second-half scoring drives.

You might say Tech had a balanced attack: 141 yards passing, 127 rushing and 120 on Tar Heel violations. For Carolina, the totals in penalties and yardage of punishment were their largest this decade.

"I consider that a slap in the face," Carolina defensive end Robert Quinn said, "because I thought we had the game won."

There was considerable reason to believe. For much of the game, the Heels suffocated Hokies quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who was compelled to call two time outs on one first-half possession to avoid delay-of-game calls. Tech started five possessions at its 11 or closer.

"I thought the defense played very well for long periods of time until they just wore out," Carolina coach Butch Davis said.

Tech had amassed four first downs in its first nine possessions when it faced third and seven on its own 14 shortly after Greg Little's 50-yard scamper made it 17-3 with 6:44 left in the third quarter. Taylor scrambled out what seemed like an implausible situation and completed a 15-yard pass to keep the drive going. Then the Heels became enablers.

The Hokies would have faced a fourth-and-one on the Carolina 35 later in that trip, but Quan Sturdivant's obviously late hit on Taylor rendered that moot. Moments thereafter, an incompletion on third and 10 from the 20 was waved off by a holding call on Deunta Williams. Credit intended receiver Danny Coale with an excellent sales job.

"There was a series of events that put them in a position to take it from us," Paschal said. "I guess you could call it growing pains, but I'm tired of those."

Taylor was clutch in the second half, but his performance wouldn't have been relevant without defensive end Orion Martin, who knocked UNC quarterback T.J. Yates out of the game with an entirely clean, lunging sack for an 18-yard loss and later caused Little to fumble with the score at 17-10.

Yates left to have his left ankle X-rayed, which didn't reveal any fracture. He will be re-evaluated today.

The Heels were again complicit in their demise when Anthony Elzy, a backup fullback, smacked punt returner Victor Harris well out of bounds. The play took the ball from the UNC 44 to the 29 -- ultimately the difference between field-goal range and punting distance. When the Hokies gained only one yard on the resulting possession, they didn't care. For the second week in a row, kicker Dustin Keys broke a fourth-quarter tie with a decisive field goal.

"It wasn't about T.J. going down at all," Little said. "We played like ourselves in the first half. In the second, we had way too many turnovers and way too many mistakes. We let them walk back in the game."

UNC would have been in position to crack the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in nearly seven years. It would have had a head-to-head win over a Costal Division rival. It dissipated as 59,800 watched.

"We played our butts off," Paschal said. "It's frustrating to give up a 14-point lead like that. You make little mistakes here and there and they come up and bite you. Virginia Tech is a good team, but this is not going to sit well with me."

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@news-record.com

Virginia Tech 0 3 7 10 -- 20

North Carolina 0 10 7 0 -- 17

NC--FG Wooten 27

VT--FG Keys 19

NC--Tate 32 pass from Yates (Wooten kick)

NC--Little 50 run (Wooten kick)

VT--Evans 10 run (Keys kick)

VT--Lewis 11 run (Keys kick)

VT--FG Keys 45

A--59,800.

Virginia Tech North Carolina

First downs 16 14

Rushes-yards 42-127 32-103

Passing 141 204

Comp-Att-Int 12-22-2 14-26-2

Return Yards 31 25

Punts-Avg. 6-34.0 5-44.2

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-2

Penalties-Yards 4-21 14-121

Time of Possession 32:42 27:18

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING--Virginia Tech, Evans 14-61, T.Taylor 12-35, Lewis 7-28, Oglesby 4-9, Roberts 2-0, Boone 1-(minus 2), Team 2-(minus 4). North Carolina, Little 18-71, Foster 3-45, Tate 2-16, Draughn 5-10, Paulus 1-(minus 10), Yates 3-(minus 29).

PASSING--Virginia Tech, T.Taylor 11-21-2-125, Glennon 1-1-0-16. North Carolina, Yates 11-18-0-181, Paulus 3-8-2-23.

RECEIVING--Virginia Tech, Coale 4-54, Boykin 2-33, Drager 1-15, Roberts 1-15, Harris 1-9, Boone 1-5, Evans 1-5, Smith 1-5. North Carolina, Nicks 4-51, Tate 3-66, Foster 3-52, Pianalto 3-31, Little 1-4.