Inside
Game Day
Saturday, September 20, 2014
By Al Myatt |
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Work pays off as Pirates party
Al Myatt
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GREENVILLE —
North Carolina's second trick play for a touchdown, a 29-yard pass from
holder Tommy Hibbard to a wide open Eric Albright from field goal formation,
momentarily subdued the excitement at rowdy Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on
Saturday.
The score came with 12:15 left
in the first half and gave the Tar Heels their last lead at 20-14.
UNC, ranked No. 25 in the
coaches poll and coming off an open date that gave the Heels plenty of time
to smolder over
last year's 55-31 loss to the Pirates
in Chapel Hill, were looking capable of payback.
But the ECU program wasn't
studying losing face in front of charged-up Pirate Nation or an ESPNU
audience.
The Pirates scored the next 28
points and went on to provide a memorable 70-41 win for themselves and
everyone who shouted "Purple" or "Gold" on Hall of Fame weekend.
ECU alumnus and coach Ruffin
McNeill was honored that his Pirates coach, Pat Dye, could be on hand.
McNeill continues to credit the players' commitment to the vision for the
program.
Shane Carden, the poster guy
for the Pirate offense, completed 30 of 48 passes for 438 yards and four
touchdowns.
He gave up an interception
early that led to a 10-7 Tar Heels lead with 9:43 left in the first quarter
on a 35-yard wide receiver pass from Ryan Switzer to T.J. Thorpe.
"We have great coaching,"
Carden said. "You've got to weather the storm. There are going to be times
in games where things happen that are against you. You can't flinch. You
can't let them bother you.
"Picks are going to happen. I
don't want to throw picks. I'll look at that. I'm sure I could have done
better on that play but it happens and you've got to forget about it.
"I think our team did a great
job of continuing to battle the storm when they were making plays of coming
back and making big plays right back at them.
"You've got to do that to win
tough ball games."
The plays that the Pirates came
back with included a 26-yard scoring reception by Trevon Brown with 10:01
left in the half for a 21-20 ECU lead. Brown snared a 55-yard touchdown pass
on the third play from scrimmage.
Brown's performance, which
included five catches for 117 yards and a pair of TDs, came in the absence
of Cam Worthy, who received a two-game suspension from the ECU Student
Affairs division. The penalty stemmed from a verbal disagreement with a male
student on campus before preseason camp. The situation went through an
appeals process and the suspension was announced on game day. Worthy had six
catches for 224 yards in
a 28-21 win at No. 17 Virginia Tech
last week.
Brown wasn't the only one
stepping up.
Breon Allen played the sort of
role that Vintavious Cooper delivered for ECU in 2012 and 2013, a small back
who can break big plays. Allen, who is 5 feet, 8 inches and 190 pounds, ran
18 times for 211 yards with two TDs.
He followed his blocking with a
series of cuts that produced a scintillating 44-yard scoring run. It looked
like the Heels were in position to hem Allen up at the line of scrimmage
before he got to the end zone for a 28-20 lead with 3:48 left in the half.
The play came with ECU facing third-and-28 at the UNC 44 after a sack and a
procedure penalty.
"That's a gift God has given me
to be able to navigate through stuff like that," Allen said. "I read
Trevon's block very well. I read Isaiah's (Jones) block very well. I read
(left tackle) Ike Harris's block very well at the beginning of the play.
They always do a good job of blocking for me down field."
McNeill and staff put a premium
on blocking by their talented receiving corps.
"If they don't block, they
don't play," said the Pirates coach.
East Carolina led 35-20 at the
half, which, coincidentally, was the final score in a UNC victory on Oct. 1,
2011, the last time the Tar Heels played in Greenville.
The crowd of 51,082 was a
stadium record, surpassing the 50,610 figure for that UNC visit three years
ago.
Carden hit Brandon Bishop for a
19-yard touchdown just eight seconds before halftime.to complete an 80-yard
drive. It was the first collegiate reception for Bishop, a sophomore out of
Greene Central, the high school alma mater of new Pirates baseball coach
Cliff Godwin.
"It was big to get points right
before half because we knew they would get the ball coming out in the second
half," Carden said.
That first UNC possession was
short-circuited by a 46-yard interception return for a touchdown by Pirates
mike linebacker Zeek Bigger, who read a crossing route and jumped the pass
from Marquise Williams, who Bigger knows going back to youth league
football.
Bigger had seven solo tackles
and 10 assists to lead the Pirates.
"Basically we stayed focused,"
Bigger said. "We keep it rocking. We out here. We turned it in to a party.
... When we come out here and play football, it's a party. We have fun. We
showed Dowdy-Fick, what we've been practicing, what we've been working on."
Bigger said the Tar Heels
quarterback spoke to him.
"He said, 'I love you,'" Bigger
said. "I said, 'I love you, too. Throw me another one.' "
Williams directed a drive that
stopped ECU's string of points and closed the gap to 42-27.
Another Pirate flurry that
included two scoring keepers by Carden sandwiched around a 25-yard TD pass
to Jones extended the margin to 63-27 and assured consecutive ECU wins in
the series for the first time.
ECU's 789 yards of total
offense is a school record.
"It doesn't get too much better
than that, at home in front of our fans," said senior Justin Hardy, who had
six catches for 92 yards.
The outcome generated a lot of
positive emotion for a region and an institution that has sometimes felt
oppressed by UNC, dating back to times when East Carolina sought university
status, a medical school and membership in the ACC.
It was the fourth straight win
against an ACC opponent for the Pirates over the last two seasons.
ECU's recruiting classes are
rated below UNC's annually but the Pirates are able to recruit players that
fit their systems and they are developing those players impeccably.
ECU has scored 125 points
against the Tar Heels in two seasons.
McNeill, who has overseen the
program's progress, enjoyed the moment and welcomed a large group of
recruits. Very little, if anything, can surpass what the prospective players
saw in terms of a college football experience.
"I looked at the players and
they were happy." McNeill said. "I saw my family and they were happy. My
family and my players are what I care about. I'm good."
E-mail Al Myatt.
PAGE UPDATED
09/21/14 04:42 PM.
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