Rain Shortens Annual Purple-Gold Scrimmage
March 27, 2004 | Football
GREENVILLE, N.C. --- With just over two minutes remaining in the second quarter, a thunderstorm passed over Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium prompting East Carolina University athletics officials to cancel the remainder of today's Purple-Gold scrimmage, which was completed with the score tied at 7-7.
ECU has three more practice sessions remaining this spring, which will culminate with its third and final scrimmage Thursday night at 7 p.m.
"I think we were just kind of feeling ourselves early, but then we started to get a little rhythm," said head coach John Thompson. " We really wanted to finish this one, but once we looked at the radar we decided that resuming the game wasn't the thing to do."
The scrimmage was a chance for the Pirates' to put their new pass-oriented offense on display. Eleven different receivers caught passes from ECU's trio of quarterbacks for 138 yards. Sophomore tight end Josh Coffman led all receivers with three catches for 63 yards. Junior Tyrece Hayden was the only other Pirates with multiple catches. He caught two passes for 18 yards.
Senior quarterback Desmond Robinson marched the Gold team down field 58 yards for a touchdown on its opening possession. Robinson connected with four different receivers on the drive, including a five-yard scoring strike to Steve Rogers. Robinson connected on 5-of-9 passes fro 42 yards with an interception during the abbreviated scrimmage.
Following a 71-yard interception return by junior Josh Chilsom, sophomore scored from two-yards out to tie the game at 7-7. Chilsom intercepted a Robinson pass at the Purple 25-yard line and ran it all the way back to the Gold four-yard line.
Sophomore James Pinkney completed 5-of-12 passes for 43 yards with an interception for the Purple team, while sophomore transfer Patrick Dosh completed 4-of-5 passes for 53 yards along with an interception for the Gold.
The ECU defense forced a total of three turnovers against its offensive counterparts. Senior Tutu Moye halted one scoring drive by intercepting a pass at the two-yard line, while junior Richard Koonce also intercepted a pass just over midfield.
Purple-Gold Scrimmage
Final Statistics
Rushing --- Burke 8-37; Hayden 6-32; Tillman 7-13; Dosh 2-11; Robinson 1-2.
Passing --- Dosh 5-4-1 53 yards; Pinkney 12-5-1 43 yards; Robinson 9-5-1 42 yards.
Receiving --- Coffman 3-63; Hayden 2-18; Good 1-13; Roach 1-13; Harris 1-12; Rogers 1-5; Pickett 1-3; Veal 1-3; Fox 1-2; Burke 1-1.
