Pirates Battle No. 2 Miami Tough Through Three Quarters
September 13, 2003 | Football
MIAMI ? East Carolina gave second-ranked Miami a tooth-and-nail battle through three quarters, but the Hurricanes put three fourth-quarter touchdowns on the board to pull away for a 38-3 win on Saturday night at the Orange Bowl.
The Pirates (0-3), playing in front of a crowd of 65,825, trailed 17-3 midway of the third and generally held Miami's potent offense in check. However, the Hurricanes took firm control of the contest and put any hopes of a Pirate upset to rest two plays into the fourth quarter when they sacked ECU quarterback Desmond Robinson, forcing a fumble which was recovered for a touchdown to go up 24-3.
Miami (3-0), which entered the game as a heavy favorite, looked to have its way early with the Pirates as the Hurricanes scored on their third play from scrimmage. Quarterback Brock Berlin hit Roscoe Parrish on a 50-yard scoring strike to go up 7-0 with 11:23 left in the first.
However, ECU's defense forced Berlin to hurry passes and held the Hurricane rushing attack in check to void the first-quarter momentum. Pirate linebacker Kent Nealy recorded ECU's first interception of the season to halt one drive and Marvin Townes rushed for a 28-yard gain on the very next play to move the Pirates to the Miami 32 and within view of a potential tying score. The drive was negated when Robinson had a pass picked off by Miami's Sean Taylor.
A kick-catching interference penalty against Miami gave ECU a short field at the opponent's 44 late in the first quarter and another opportunity to tie the game. The drive reached the Miami 15 before stalling and the Pirates came up empty-handed again when Cameron Broadwell's 39-yard field goal attempt missed wide left.
A 13-play, 78-yard drive resulted in a one-yard TD run by Frank Gore to give Miami a 14-0 lead midway of the second. The Hurricanes tacked on a 38-yard field goal by Jon Peattie just before halftime for a 17-0 margin.
Miami took the opening kickoff of the second half and moved the ball to the ECU 34 before Pirate linebacker Richard Koonce knocked the ball loose from runner Gore and teammate Damane Duckett pounced on it for the recovery.
Robinson then engineered a 13-play, 59-yard drive culminated by a 26-yard field goal by Broadwell to make it 17-3 with 5:02 left in the third. The Pirates converted two crucial fourth-down situations on the drive, one on a fake punt play which saw punter Ryan Dougherty complete an 11-yard pass to Mickey McCoy, and the other on an offsides penalty on the Hurricanes when ECU lined up to go for it on a fourth-and-two.
The Hurricanes downed a punt at the ECU 9 near the end of the third quarter to put the Pirates in a hole from which they would never recover. Three plays later, on third-and-12, Robinson dropped back near the goalline, was hit hard by a pair of Hurricane defenders, and lost the ball which was recovered in the end zone by Santonio Thomas.
That momentum would carry Miami to quick scoring drives on each of its next two possessions to put the game completely out of reach.
ECU tailback Marvin Townes had his most productive day of the season with 70 yards on 16 carries. Robinson finished 14 of 21 for 117 yards, but suffered two interceptions. Terrance Copper, who entered the game as the nation's leading receiver with 23 catches in his first two games, again led the Pirates' air attack with seven receptions for 68 yards. Redshirt freshman punter Ryan Dougherty also had a standout evening as he averaged 49.2 yards on four punts.
The Pirates entered the game as the only team in the past 25 years to have beaten the storied Miami program in each of their last two meetings. The previous meeting between the two teams came in 1999 when ECU upset No. 9 Miami in a game moved to Raleigh's Carter-Finley Stadium in the aftermatch of Hurricane Floyd.
ECU travels to face in-state rival Wake Forest next Saturday with a 6:30 p.m. kickoff scheduled at the Demon Deacons' Groves Stadium.
East Carolina Postgame Notes
Postgame Quotes: ECU Coach John Thompson
"We earned respect for three quarters. We've got to make it a four-quarter game."
"We did some good things for 48 minutes. We battled them. We asked our guys to compete every down; we asked our guys to keep fighting. And we did that."
"We just imploded there at the end. We had the sack and we fumbled there in the end zone, then we came back and we didn't tackle. We just kinda reverted back to some things that we did [earlier in the season]. But we're making progress. Nobody's satisfied; nobody's happy in that locker room, but we know we got better. I think those guys over in [the Miami] locker room have a great coaching staff and some great players. I think they know they were in a battle today. I'm proud of our guys."
On putting pressure on Miami QB Brock Berlin early in the game:
"I think that goes to the resolve of our defensive linemen. Art [Kaufman] has done a great job with those guys. We had him out of rhythm there a little bit. We've still got to be better on third down."
"Our run defense was better. They [Miami] cranked it up there late and I give them credit. When we started bleeding, they smelled the blood and came after us ? on both sides of the ball, both offense and defense."
On the running of Marvin Townes:
"Marvin ran hard. Marvin kept running hard throughout the whole game. We've got to get him to do a little better on those kickoff returns."
"I thought [punter] Ryan Dougherty really did a good job of kicking it out and made a big, big play [on the completed pass on a fake punt play]. Mickey McCoy did a good job of executing it. [Assistant coach] Jerry McManus has been trying to get that in there for the last three games and was just waiting for the right time to do it. That was the time. Mickey hasn't had a lot of reps at that, but he went out there, made the catch and got the first down."
On the absense of linebacker Chris Moore on defense:
"Not having Chris in there was a big deal, but [our defensive coaching staff] has done a great job of holding this defense together."
