No. 18 East Carolina Tops Connecticut 31-21

Thursday, October 23

Greenville, N.C.

7:00 PM

East Carolina University

6-1 , 3-0

Connecticut

1-6 , 0-4

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

UConn

East Carolina

October 23, 2014 | Football

Box Score

Final Stats

l ECU Notes

l UConn Notes

l Post-Game Quotes

Highlights and Interviews

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

By Bill Woodward
ECUPirates.com

GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina quarterback Shane Carden summed up the Pirates' 31-21 victory over Connecticut in a nutshell. The 18th-ranked Pirates did what it took to win when it mattered - in the fourth quarter of a tie game Thursday night at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

"When we needed to make plays, when we needed to score, we did," Carden said. "I think that was the biggest (thing to) pull away tonight. Obviously, that wasn't our best, not nearly close. We are going to play. We have to play better.

"But when we needed to score we did. We fought and we won the game."

The Pirates (6-1, 3-0 American Athletic Conference) won their fifth-straight game to remain atop the American. More important, East Carolina became bowl eligible for the eighth time in nine seasons.

"It's very big (to be bowl eligible)," ECU receiver Justin Hardy said. "The next thing to go after is the conference championship."

UConn (1-6, 0-4) gave the Pirates all they could handle for three quarters. After falling behind 14-0, the Huskies battled to a 21-21 tie when Chandler Whitmer connected with Deshon Foxx on an 88-yard touchdown play with 3:43 left in the third quarter.

The Pirates responded by scoring the final 10 points of the game. Like most of the game in which penalties (11 for 105 yards) came often and the offense couldn't seem to find a rhythm, it didn't come easily.

On the first possession after the Huskies tied the score, East Carolina drove to the UConn 30 but turned the ball over when it could not convert a 4th-and-5 play. On their following possession, the Pirates punted.

The ECU defense held again, and Carden and company got to work. Carden said he gave his offense a little pep talk before taking the field midway through the fourth quarter and the scoreboard still reading Connecticut 21, East Carolina 21.

"I told them we've got to go score," Carden said. "The defense kept giving us the ball and we've got to get a score in that situation, and we were able to do that. We kept believing in our offense and doing the things that we have done all year and we were able to grind out a win."

The Pirates began the march to victory with a drive that stalled at the UConn 14. Warren Harvey, who had missed a 33-yard field goal attempt just before halftime, was good from 31 yards out to put the Pirates up 24-21 with 6:15 left in the game.

ECU's defense forced a three-and-out and the Pirates had the ball with a chance to put the game away. And that is just what the black-clad Pirates did on "Paint It Black Thursday."

With Carden completing three of four passes and rushing for 14 yards and a key first down, the Pirates drove 76 yards in 10 plays. Breon Allen scored from the nine to put ECU up 31-21 with 1:25 left in the game.

The Pirates' offense was hot at the beginning - scoring the first two times it had the ball as ECU took a quick 14-0 lead - and at the end of the game. The consistency wasn't there in between. Penalties hurt and Carden was picked off in the end zone to halt one drive.

But there were still some impressive numbers.

Carden completed a season-high 38 passes while throwing a career-high 64 passes for 445 yards and two touchdowns - the seventh time in his career and the fourth time this season he has gone over 400 in a game.

Hardy caught a season-high 14 passes for a season-best 186 yards. The senior receiver moved into second place on the FBS career receptions list with 327 and needs 23 more catches to become the all-time leader in receptions. Ryan Broyles caught 349 passes for Oklahoma from 2008-2011.

The record isn't on his mind, Hardy said.

"It's going to be big but I don't like to think about it," Hardy said. "I just want to go out there and play my game."

And for Hardy and the Pirates this season, that has been a winning game six times out of seven. And that is the stat that most concerns ECU.

Zeek Bigger, who shared the team tackles lead at nine with Brandon Williams, put it succinctly.

"All I can say is we won," Bigger said. "We are going to get everybody's best shot. I think everybody is seeing that now. I can't be happier with this team and the way the offense and defense played their hearts out in the fourth quarter. We fight for each other.

"We pulled out this win and we'll go on to the next one."

The Pirates ran 100 plays in their no-huddle offense for 580 yards, something that UConn coach Bob Diaco noted afterward.

"I haven't seen 100 plays," Diaco said. "I can't think back to a game that I have been a part of where we had to defend 100 plays."

East Carolina coach Ruffin McNeill was not pleased with the high number of penalties, saying it was something that the Pirates had been working on and something they would continue to work on.

When asked about the apparent tight officiating in the American Conference, Mc Neill said, "I'm still learning how to (adjust to the officiating). We coach the same technique that I have for 15 years. I am trying to adjust to it. We'll keep working on it."

McNeill said he was proud of the way his team responded to adversity for the second-straight game. Against South Florida, the Pirates scored the final 21 points to win 28-17 on the road.

"This was a tough win," McNeill said. "We took a team's best shot two (games) in a row. I'm proud of this team."

And proud of the win.

"I told them do not dare try to defend a win," McNeill said. "The main thing is to win and we did that."