Pirates Fall to Cincinnati in Season Opener
September 01, 2003 | Football
CINCINNATI -- It was not the start to his head coaching career that East Carolina's John Thompson had hoped for.
Cincinnati's offense rolled up 489 yards while its defense kept the Pirates out of the end zone as the Bearcats posted a 40-3 win on Labor Day Monday at Nippert Stadium.
The game was the season opener for both Conference USA schools.
Thompson's debut game as the Pirates' head coach got off on a positive note as Pirate starting quarterback Desmond Robinson found Terrance Copper on a 34-yard pass completion on the second play from scrimmage to give ECU the ball in Bearcat territory. However, ECU ran out of downs at the Cincinnati 42. The long pass play would be the only first down that ECU would manage until the second quarter.
While the Bearcat defense was holding ECU in check, Cincinnati put two scores on the board in the opening quarter -- one on a 59-yard drive capped by a 1-yard TD run by Richard Hall, and the other on a 1-yard dive by Tedric Harwell which came after a Doug Managhan interception at the ECU 37.
UC quarterback Gino Guidugli connected with Dennis Hart on a 29-yard touchdown pass in the closing minute of the first half and Cincinnati held a 21-0 lead at intermission.
The Pirates looked to grab the momentum to start the second half when cornerback Jared Brogden knocked the ball loose on a rush by Hall and ECU's Travis Heath recovered at the Cincinnati 37. However, East Carolina had to settle for a 36-yard field goal by Cameron Broadwell and cut the lead to 21-3.
It was as close as the Pirates would get. Cincinnati added a 23-yard scoring run by Derick Eddington with 3:56 left in the third to go up 28-3 and erase any hopes of an ECU comeback.
The Bearcats added a field goal later in the third and tacked on a safety and another scoring run, this time by Harwell, in the fourth to cap the scoring.
The Pirate rushing offense struggled all day and managed only 57 yards on the ground. Playing without injured Art Brown, the Pirates started junior Marvin Townes at tailback and he was limited to 36 yards on 15 carries.
"There's a lot of things that we have to get so much better on," Thompson said. "We've got to be a tougher football team, which we will be. We got it stuck to us pretty good today by a good football team and a well-coached football team. We've got to learn from that. We put our quarterbacks in some rough spots because we weren't able to run the football. Our defense wasn't able to control them on third downs or control the run. They had us off-balance; we couldn't do anything all day to create momentum."
ECU used two quarterbacks in the game, both of whom had trouble finding any success with downfield passing. Robinson, who started, completed 7-of-11 for 70 yards and one interception. With the Pirates trailing 31-3 late in the third quarter, he was relieved by Paul Troth, who went 9-for-15 for 76 yards. Troth, however, was sacked three times.
The favorite target of both QBs was Copper, who had 11 receptions for 106 yards, both career highs.
One of the bright spots of the game for ECU was the performance of redshirt freshman punter Ryan Dougherty. Dougherty punted eight times for an average of 45.2 yards per punt, including one punt of 65 yards. Three of his punts were downed inside the Bearcats' 20-yard line.
Sophomore linebacker Chris Moore was the game's standout on defense as he tallied a game-high 17 tackles, incluiding one for a loss, plus forced one fumble.
The Pirate offense converted just 2-of-15 third down situations while Cincinnati found much greater success, converting 11 of 19.
Heralded Cincinnati quarterback Guidugli, who passed for 323 yards in the teams' last meeting at the end of the 2002 season, was held to just 121 yards today on 13-of-25 passing. However, the Bearcats did most of their damage on the ground, where running backs Eddington and Hall both pounded the ball through for 100-yard games. Eddington carried 11 times for 138 yards and Hall had 24 rushes for 117 yards.
An announced crowd of 28,011 was on hand to watch the game, which was televised nationally by ESPN.
East Carolina returns home for a short week of preparation before hosting West Virginia in the 2003 home opener on Saturday. The Pirates and Mountaineers will kick off at 7 p.m. in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
"There's not going to be any moping," Thompson said. "We've got to learn from it. I believe in this team. We've got to work harder and get things straight in some personnel factors and do some things that we know we can be better in, and I promise you, we will."
Postgame Notes
