GREENVILLE — Marshall triggered a fourth quarter surge with a gimmick play and defeated East Carolina, 31-13, on Saturday in a nonconference contest fragmented by a lengthy weather delay at halftime.
Coverage on ESPNU shifted to Florida’s 49-7 home win over McNeese State during the extended intermission at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium where Marshall was 0-7 prior to ECU’s first home game of 2023.
Thundering Herd quarterback Cam Fancher threw a backwards pass to receiver Charles Montgomery, who delivered a heave downfield to Caleb McMillan for a touchdown play that covered 75 yards and gave the visitors a 17-13 lead with 11:07 left to play.
Rasheen Ali had subsequent scoring runs of 56 and 14 yards as Marshall scored 21 points within a span of five minutes.
ECU (0-2) had limited the Herd (2-0) to 63 yards on 25 carries through three quarters, an average of 2.5 yards per rush.
“It was like two different teams,” said Pirates coach Mike Houston on ECU’s radio network. “One for three and a half quarters and another one for half of the fourth. … We had shut down the run game for three and a half quarters.”
Andrew Conrad was wide left on a 45-yard field goal attempt with the Pirates looking to expand a 13-10 lead on the second snap of the fourth quarter. The defense went three and out before penalties for holding and illegal use of hands stalled ECU’s next offensive series.
The Herd went ahead on the play following a Luke Larsen punt.
“We had a defense called that should have protected against the double pass,” Houston said. “We talked about it, literally going on the field, because they had screened us so much.”
Mason Garcia had played all the way at quarterback for the Pirates until an interception with just over seven minutes to go that gave Marshall the ball at the ECU 23. The Herd got their final TD from Ali two plays later.
Garcia split time with Alex Flinn in a 30-3 season opening loss at No. 2 Michigan. He was replaced by Flinn with the Pirates trailing, 31-13, in week two.
Garcia finished 10 of 23 for 62 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He was ECU’s leading rusher with 16 keepers for 118 yards. Flinn completed three of eight for 61 yards with a pick.
“You had some drops early in the ball game,” Houston said of Garcia. “Then you had some accuracy on some other throws. I think he got a little happy feet in the pocket. He did some good stuff, too, obviously.
“We’ve got to clean stuff up. You can’t have drops. You can’t have penalties. You can’t get yourself behind the chains. You’re going to have a hard time being successful doing those things.”
Flinn came in after Garcia was picked off.
“He made a couple of nice throws, and he made some very poor decisions,” Houston said of Flinn. “You saw the good and the bad of both (quarterbacks) today.”
The Pirate defense generated one turnover.
Jeremy Lewis recovered a Marshall fumble at the Thundering Herd’s 3-yard line after Chad Stephens forced the bobble on a read option exchange with ECU trailing 10-3 in the first half.
The Pirates tied the score at 10 on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Garcia to tight end Shane Calhoun with 2:22 left in the half. ECU gave a power run look before Garcia rolled to the right and found Calhoun running free in the back of the end zone.
ECU appeared to have momentum going into halftime after rallying from a 10-0 deficit. The weather delay resulted in a game that spanned five hours and seven minutes after a 4:02 p.m. kickoff.
After a scoreless first quarter that featured a rain shower, Marshall took a 7-0 lead as a 1-yard run with 11:32 left in the first half by Ali finished a 12-play drive that covered 79 yards.
Fancher ran for 13 yards to the ECU 17 on a 4th-and-3 to keep the initial scoring drive alive. Ali’s 15-yard gain set up the first of his three scores.
ECU forced Marshall to settle for a 20-yard field goal by Kameron Lake with 6:03 left in the half for a 10-0 lead after the Herd had a 1st-and-goal at the 3.
A 57-yard run by Garcia to the Herd 18 led to a 39-yard field goal by Conrad with 3:53 to go in the half as the Pirates pulled within 10-3.
ECU had 13 unanswered points before Marshall scored the last 21. The Herd had a 392-265 lead in total yards.
The Pirates scored the last 21 points in a 42-38 comeback win at Marshall in 2021.
“We’ve got to clean some stuff up,” Houston said of the current team. ” … It’s just disappointing. … We had a chance to win that ball game.”
ECU visits Appalachian State on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff (ESPN+).
Being unable to see the last half of the game, I’m going to limit my comments to the first half. Great job by the Pirates pulling even at the half. It could have been, probably should have been, at least a touchdown worse. Marshall had some dropped passes which could have done a lot of damage.
Bottom line, we have a ton of young players playing, which means a huge learning curve. Neither QB has shown he is “the one”. Garcia is a bit of a disappointment, having been in the system so long, and being tabbed as the heir-apparent two years ago. He seems completely lost at times. Once again, we have a secondary which can’t take care of its’ business at crunch time. Having the right scheme called, and calling out the very play that stabs you, tells me that maybe someone else should get a chance at playing. Let’s find out now who can stick to his responsibilities.
This could be a long year. No chemistry on offense, and the secondary either can’t play the schemes, or doesn’t yet have the discipline for it.
I cannot recall seeing any other game change so radically, so instantaneously. Starting the latter part of the 1st half, ECU had all the momentum, really thanks to the defense, until the Marshall 4th quarter trick play. The defense was absolutely lights out lockdown; it felt like any offensive series, the Pirates would finally seize the game and put it away. Then came the trick play, and ECU simply vanished, on both sides of the ball.
The offense is a major concern, absolutely no traditional running game at all, dropped passes, and errant passes.
I’ll fill you in as I missed the first half and watched the second. Garcia is not a good QB. When he doesn’t panic and run he locks on to a receiver, waits too long and doesn’t throw with much accuracy. I doubt he will improve any at this stage of his career. Flinn has good pocket awareness and accuracy. He should have been the starter after how much better he looked at Michigan. Throwing him out there with a 3 TD deficit where they know we can’t run was unfair. He still had as many passing yards (about 60) as Garcia had.
The receivers as a group are some of the worst I’ve seen since Houston took over. Do we even have a tight end? So many dropped passes in both these games. The defense was doing great, but got worn out in the 4th. Hard to imagine next week at App State will be any better.
As Deion Sanders is proving college coaching is mostly about recruiting, I’m not so sure that Houston is succeeding at this most important part of the job.
Speaking of recruiting, just last week, this site featured a recent ECU commit, a young man named Sam Riddy, whom I of course hope excels at ECU, on the field and in the classroom, but the profile includes the statement that follows: Riddy chose ECU over offers from Benedict, Bryant, Charleston Southern, Colgate, Navy, Newberry, N.C. Central and The Citadel.
Except for Navy, this featured young man is considered by recruiters to be at the FCS level. Let’s hope that that’s not where ECU recruiting finds itself these days.
JJ says
Agree– under NIL and transfer portal systems current rules non-power five teams (ECU) should use the Coach Prime model. Otherwise you are using your recruiting budget as a NFL minor league or developing players for the Power Five programs.
Sad to say this will hurt High School athletes, but now it is all about the money in my opinion.
NCAA has ruined yet another beautiful thing! As pirates we keep fighting and overcoming but the NIL isn’t winnable. Trying to raise $ for indoor facility, nil what next? App st will make us 0-3 then come home to Gardner Webb with 18,000 fans . Can’t recruit and keep kids under these conditions. No telling what conference will will land in, but folk aren’t coming to see the alphabet schools from Texas. It’s hard being a Pirate, but I love ‘em !!!