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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
By Brian Bailey |
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Pirates rule East
Division — for now
By
Brian Bailey
©2008 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
East Carolina’s
overtime win over
Marshall
gave the Pirates a
commanding two-game lead
in Conference USA’s
East Division
with three games to
play. Welcome to the
driver’s seat.
It sounds great on
paper. Marshall has a
tough schedule remaining
that includes games
against Rice and Tulsa
from the West, and
Central Florida from the
East. The Thundering
Herd will be hard
pressed to win out for
sure.
With that said, there is
still plenty of work to
do for Skip Holtz and
his Pirates. That work
starts with this week’s
road game against
Southern Miss.
Southern Miss leads the
all-time series against
East Carolina 25-8. The
Golden Eagles have
simply owned the
Pirates, especially in
Greenville, where
Southern Miss has won 15
of the 17 games played.
Thankfully, this year’s
game is at the Rock in
Hattiesburg. Though it
is a difficult place to
play, the Pirates are
6-10 on the Golden
Eagles' home field and
won the last time
they paid a visit
to Southern Miss in
2006.
As far as rivalries
go, for
East Carolina, this one
is one of the biggest.
“It’s Southern Miss and
ECU,” said Pirate coach
Skip Holtz. “Talk to the
people that have
followed this rivalry
for the past 40 years
and you’ll know what we
are up against.”
Southern Miss
beat the Pirates last
year on a
late touchdown, 28-21.
In 2006, East Carolina
stunned the Golden
Eagles in overtime.
Overtime? Now there’s a
novel idea. Just when
was the last time a
Division I team won
consecutive overtime
games in the span of six
days? We’re still
researching that
nationally, but here’s
the history of
consecutive overtime
wins in C-USA.
It’s a first for the
league in six days. It’s
also the second time
that a team has won
back-to-back overtime
games in consecutive
weeks. The first team to
do it was South Florida,
which beat Cincinnati in
OT, 24-17, on Oct. 31,
2003, and then
beat East Carolina in
Greenville,
38-37, on Nov. 8, 2003.
That Pirate loss was the
game in which Vonte
Leach ran wild. Leach is
still playing football,
currently with the
Houston Texans in the
NFL.
Once again, Ben Hartman
was the kicking hero on
Saturday. He was 4-5 in
field goals, missing at
the final gun of
regulation only to take
advantage of the
mulligan with the
winning kick in
overtime.
Hartman said afterwards
that he thought he might
have a big day.
“I was thinking last
night at the hotel that
I might get a lot of
kicks,” said Hartman.
“This was like a Big Ten
game with lots of
defense. I’m just glad I
got a second chance.”
Hartman now has four
game-winning kicks in
the past two seasons. He
may get another chance
or two this year,
especially
as conservative as
the offense has gotten
of late.
Good teams win games in
the fourth quarter.
Championship teams get
the football back with
four minutes to go and
collect enough first
downs to put the game
away. That’s the
challenge that faces
Skip Holtz.
“That was the one big
disappointment,” said
Holtz. “In order to win
games like that, you
have to be able to run
the football, even when
the entire stadium knows
what you’re going to do.
We just weren’t able to
get that done. We’ve
obviously got some work
to do.”
That work continues this
week as this squad gets
set for the trip to
Hattiesburg.
If the history of this
series is any
indication, hang on.
Crazy things happen when
the Pirates and the
Golden Eagles hook up.
BB
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11/11/2008 02:42:44 AM |
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