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WVU runs over Pirates on record-setting day
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The game story
and the post-game
audio, as penned and
digitally recorded by
Denny O'Brien. |
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By Denny O'Brien
©2002 Bonesville.net
BOX SCORE...
BONESVILLE GAME CENTER...
MORGANTOWN, WV — Steve Logan brought a bag full of tricks to Morgantown,
hoping to find the magical potion to cure East Carolina's 0-for-8 string of
frustration at
Mountaineer Field.
After Kelly Hardy returned a fumble 80 yards giving East Carolina an
early 7-0 lead, the Pirates head coach called an onsides kick — but it
failed.
On the Pirates' first possession, he placed receiver Richard Alston under
center — but that failed, too.
In fact every trick the Pirates tried — with the lone exception being a
37-yard run by Christshawn Gilliam on a fake punt — failed on a slightly
overcast afternoon.
No matter how many adjustments they made, the Bucs couldn't slow a
West Virginia rushing attack that piled up a Big East single-game record 536
yards.
As a result, East Carolina's ninth trip to West Virginia ended much like
its previous ones, with the Pirates on the losing end of a 37-17 score.
"That's the first time that's happened (to us) this year," Logan said
about the Mountaineers dominant rushing performance. "It's basically
the same style of offense Wake Forest plays.
"We just didn't play well on the defensive side of the ball, and our
offense is leaving our defense on the field way too long. They whipped us
up front."
Senior running back Avon Cobourne led the Mountaineers' ground assault,
trampling over and around Pirates defenders for 260 yards on 30 carries on a
day that saw him become West Virginia's all-time leading rusher.
Running mate Quincy Wilson supplied a near carbon-copy performance,
adding 198 yards on 14 carries, as the Mountaineers tallied the most yards
rushing ever against an East Carolina football team. Miami, which rushed
for 454 yards against the Pirates in 1980, previously held that mark.
"We tried (to make adjustments)," Gilliam said. "We tried to get
the linebackers and everybody to stay at home at their position. We were trying to make too many big plays instead of taking our time."
All totaled, East Carolina's retooled defense surrendered 569 yards on
the day.
On offense, it didn't get much better for the Pirates, who managed just
65 yards on the ground, 37 of which came on the Gilliam scamper.
Art Brown, who two weeks ago rushed for a career-high 185 yards, was held
to a modest 39 yards on 14 carries against a quick-and-stingy West Virginia
defense.
"We've got to get some productivity on the offensive side in the running
game," Logan said. "From ground level, they were a lot faster than we were
getting to the football. We couldn't block them long enough to get anything
generated on the run game."
Trailing 27-7, East Carolina inched closer at the 6:51 mark of the third
quarter when Brown took an option pitch 12 yards for a touchdown to close
the score to 27-14. The Pirates seemed to have finally found their rhythm,
marching 62 yards in 11 plays.
But any semblance of a steady ECU beat was interrupted on West
Virginia's ensuing possession, when Wilson raced 73 yards to push the
Mountaineer advantage back to 20 at 34-14.
The two teams traded fourth quarter field goals, with WVU flirting with
another score as the final seconds ticked off.
"We couldn't run the ball very well, and we turned the ball over in the
passing game again," quarterback Paul Troth said. "It just wasn't
there today.
"They're really fast — they have great athletes over there. But we
helped them out, too, with turnovers in the passing game. Overall, I think
we didn't anticipate them being as fast as they were."
Troth finished the day 23-of-33 for 207 yards, with two interceptions.
Alston led the Pirates with six receptions for 81 yards, most of which
occurred after the intermission.
The day didn't start out rosy for Cobourne, whose fumble at the Pirates'
20 led to Hardy's touchdown return. But the senior running back soon
redeemed himself, scoring on a 52-yard dash after East Carolina failed to
convert an onsides kick.
The extra point attempt failed, however, and the Pirates maintained the
narrowest of margins, 7-6 — but the lead didn't hold up for long.
West Virginia moved ahead for good at the 3:15 mark of the first quarter when
Arthur Harrison recovered a mishandled punt by Terrance Copper in the end
zone, giving the Mountaineers a 13-7 advantage.
WVU added to its lead with 9:40 left in the first half
when quarterback Rasheed Marshall picked up his own fumble, tumbling into
the end zone from one-yard out to bump the score to 20-7. The play capped
off a five-play 71-yard drive that saw the Mountaineers fumble twice but
maintain possession each time.
"We're not quite fast enough on defense, it doesn't look like," Logan
said. "I think there were a couple of balls on the ground that we didn't
take advantage of."
Cobourne scored his second touchdown of the day moments later, this one a
seven-yard scamper, giving the Mountaineers a 27-7 advantage at the
intermission.
"We're going to do a lot of really, really hard, hard work this week and
see if we can't try to find some definition for this football team," Logan
said. "Right now, we don't have much definition."
In addition, Logan will be searching for a way to stop the run, and he'll
need to do so quickly as the Pirates entertain conference foe Army next
weekend in Greenville.
BOX SCORE...
BONESVILLE GAME CENTER...
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02/23/2007 01:50:56 AM
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