Pirates Rush Past Tulane, 24-20

Pirates Rush Past Tulane, 24-20

09/14/2002

Box Score

Highlights

Notes

Quotes

GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Art Brown rushed for a career-high 185 yards and two touchdowns to lead East Carolina to a 24-20 win over visiting Tulane in a Conference USA football game Saturday night at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The Pirates (1-2 overall, 1-0 C-USA) scored the go-ahead touchdown at the end of the third quarter when Brown rumbled into the end zone from four yards out to cap an 89-yard scoring drive. Tulane falls to 2-1 overall, 0-1 in C-USA.

Following are highlights and notes from the game:

Highlights

Paul Troth scored on a two-yard rushing touchdown, the first of his young Pirate career, capping an eight-play, 59-yard scoring drive on ECU's first offensive series of the game. The touchdown drive included a 15-yard pass from Troth to Torey Morris and a 35-yard pass from Troth to Terrance Copper. The touchdown gave the Pirates a 7-0 lead, and marked the second straight game ECU has scored first.

On its next possession, Tulane tied the score at 7-7 on a Mewelde Moore one-yard rushing touchdown.

Kelly Hardy intercepted Tulane quarterback J.P. Losman in the first quarter for the Pirates' first interception of the year. Hardy returned the pick for 31 yards, leading to a 44-yard field goal by Kevin Miller. The 44-yarder ran Miller's streak to 14 straight field goals and gave ECU a 10-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Tulane tied the score at 10-10 on Seth Marler's 30-yard field goal with 7:07 left in the first half.

Art Brown scored on a three-yard carry to give ECU a 17-10 lead going into halftime. Brown carried the ball four times for 34 yards on the eight-play, 80-yard drive.

Tulane scored on its first possession of the second half, driving 58 yards in six plays to tie the score, 17-17, on an 11-yard TD run by Moore. Quarterback J.P. Losman connected on three straight passes for 40 yards, while Moore added 18 yards on three carries.

Tulane took a 20-17 lead when Marler booted a 32-yard field goal with 7:59 left in the third. The field goal was set up by a 44-yard punt return by Lynaris Elpheage which put the ball at the ECU 6.

The Pirates regained the lead for good with 37 seconds left in the third when Art Brown scored on a four-yard rush. The eight-play, 89-yard drive was highlighted by a 26-yard rush by Brown which moved the ball to the Tulane 14.

Miller's field goal streak was halted in the fourth quarter when his 47-yard attempt at the 3:57 mark missed wide right. The miss set up Tulane's last legitimate scoring chance, which ended at the ECU 47 when the Green Wave punted with 2:54 left.

On its final possession of the game, ECU used Brown's rushing to eat up the clock before finally punting with 30 seconds remaining in the game. Tulane's Losman completed two short passes, then a final desparation heave was batted incomplete.

Notes

Place-kicker Kevin Miller accounted for six points in tonight's game, which moves him to third on the ECU career scoring chart. Now with 216 career points, Miller surpasses Chad Holcomb (1993-1996) and is now just six points behind Carlester Crumpler (1971-1973).

After carrying the ball 35 times without being ever being stopped behind the line of scrimmage during his brief collegiate career, sophomore Marvin Townes was finally stopped for a one-yard loss on his fourth touch of the game in the first quarter. Townes finished with a career-high 87 rushing yards on 14 carries.

The Pirates improve to 6-5 in home openers under Coach Steve Logan and are now 4-1 all-time vs. Tulane.

Senior wide receiver Richard Alston returned to the starting lineup after missing last week's game with mononucleosis. Alston caught a team-high three passes for 23 yards. Senior flex end Ben Thomas also saw action after missing the first two games with an ankle injury.

The Pirates did not suffer a turnover in tonight's game after yielding nine turnovers in the first two games.

Senior punter Jarad Preston, who entered the game as the nation's No. 10 punter, kicked the ball eight times for an average of 43 yards. Four of his eight punts were downed inside the Green Wave's 20-yard line.

Postgame Quotes: ECU Coach Steve Logan
"No turnovers, no turnovers, no turnovers, that's how you win football games. We gained one turnover tonight and I think that was the difference in the football game. I think that, once again, the really uplifting news is that we got better as a football team from game two to game three. As a coach, that's the biggest question you ask yourself: are you improving. I saw a better football team tonight. Who we beat, it's too early in the season to tell, but we can go into the open date now and break our films down and make some value judgements on where we are and who we are and what we'd like to try to become."

"We had two opportunities, I thought, offensively to put the game away and we failed. Part of that [is] we're still a work in progress on offense as far as maturity. It became incumbant upon the defense, they've got to go play. The biggest change defensively from last year to this year, including the first football game, is that we are getting off the field on third down some now."

On the running of Art Brown and Marvin Townes
"What I saw tonight, and last weekend as well, is what I spoke to in the preseason. I thought we had two really wonderful running backs and our offensive line should be able to run block. We didn't get that done in the first game, we did it better in the second game, we did it better in the third game. That is what I hope we can do is hand the ball off, throw play-action passes, and let Paul grow up step by step."

"We are still a work in progress, although from game one to game two and tonight, we are starting to create a little definition."

"Winning is a cure-all. It gives us a chance to relax and keep our focus during our upcoming week off."

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