GREENVILLE — There were some big differences in the Army-East Carolina matchup on Thursday night compared to last year.
The Black Knights didn’t have Bryson Daily at quarterback. He accounted for six touchdowns in a 45-28 win for the Black Knights in 2024.
This year’s game was played at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium rather than Michie Stadium at West Point. An afternoon SportsCenter on ESPN from Sup Dogs downtown helped get Pirate Nation excited.
The biggest difference, of course, was a 28-6 triumph for the Pirates, who took control with a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. The offense missed some opportunities later, but special teams stepped up to seal the outcome when holder Kyler Pearson went 32 yards for a touchdown on a fake field goal with 8:14 to go.
Katin Houser completed 15 of 22 passes for 251 yards with two TDs and one interception. He also ran for a score.
“Really happy with how we played,” said Houser on tbe Pirate radio network. “Defense had another great game, holding Army to six points.
“Offensively, we wanted to start fast and I feel like we did that with 21 points in the first quarter.”
Houser’s passes to Anthony Smith keyed the first two scores.
Smith had a 41-yard reception to the Army 14 on the first series of the game. Houser completed the drive with a 3-yard keeper with 12:07 left in the first quarter.
Smith caught a 40-yard TD pass with 8:59 left in the first as the Pirates went up, 14-0.
Jayvontay Conner caught a 20-yard scoring pass from Houser as ECU boosted its lead to 21-0 with 39 seconds left in the first.
The Pirates (3-2, 1-0 American Conference) were in position to add to the advantage late in the first half, but Army recovered a deflected pitch at their own 18-yard line.
The Black Knights (1-3, 0-2) pulled within 21-6 after taking the second half kickoff. Noah Short had a 60-yard run to the ECU 4. Quarterback Dewayne Coleman scored on 4th-and-goal from the 2. Army went for a 2-poi t conversion with 10-32 left in the third but safety Teagan Wilk came up to stop Short short.
The Pirates were denied twice on subsequent fourth downs that were sandwiched around a stop of Coleman on a fourth down.
Army was limited to two of 15 on third down conversions and was four for nine on fourth down.
The visitors were short on a fourth down pass and yielded possession at the ECU 33 with 11:03 remaining.
Army showed no urgency on its last possession, keeping all of its timeouts and primarily using quarterback Cale Hellums to carry the ball on a series that ended on downs at the ECU 12 with 1:21 to go.
Mike Wright Jr. took the last two snaps as the Pirates ran out the clock.
Anthony Smith had three catches for 87 yards. Yannick Smith had three receptions for 56 yards. Brock Spalding’s three grabs accounted for 36 yards.
ECU led 431-290 in total yards.
The Pirates had 180 yards rushing as London Montgomery had 15 carries for 58 yards. Marlon Gunn Jr. ran 10 times for 53 yards. Parker Jenkins had 13 rushes for 36 yards.
Another change from 2024 — there isn’t an imminent coaching change at ECU.
“That’s a conference win against the defending American Conference champs,” said Coach Blake Harrell, who sampled the fare at Sup Dogs in the afternoon and rated it a 10 on a one to 10 scale on ESPN.
What is imminent is another Thursday night game on ESPN at Tulane on Oct. 9. The Green Wave is 3-1 going into a contest at Tulsa on Saturday.
Great win for the Pirates, considering last year’s game against Army, and last week’s game with BYU. The Pirates offense started hot, and for most of the game seemed capable of moving the ball against Army. A couple of QB errors ended chances for more points. Let’s hope KH can clean these up over the bye week. The Pirates offense came up empty in the second half, despite moving the ball fairly well. I give credit to Army for fighting back.
The Pirate defense came up lucky early in the game, thanks to Army dropping two touchdown passes. For the remainder of the game, minus Army’s 2nd half opening drive, the defense played well. However, they need to clean up the breakdowns in the secondary, which would have given at least twelve points to Army.
Clearly, the highlight of the game was the gutsy call by Coach to fake the field goal. With the offense unable to finish, the field goal unit executed the fake perfectly. The Pirates would have been happy with a first down, but Pearson got a couple of great blocks and took it to the house. The score was huge for the defense, which now had a large cushion.
Overall, not the prettiest win ever, but a solid win. I don’t think this effort by the Pirates will be good enough against Tulane, and other teams. However, if the Pirates can find a way to finish more drives on offense, and clean up the secondary breakdowns, they have what it takes to play with anybody in the conference.