ECU Drops Heartbreaker To Tulane In Overtime, 31-24

Saturday, November 11

Greenville, N.C.

7:00 P.M.

East Carolina University

2-8 , 1-5

Tulane

4-6 , 2-4

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Tulane

ECU

November 12, 2017 | Football

Box Score

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By Joe Corley
ECUPirates.com

GREENVILLE, N.C. — The ECU football team hung tough and overcame some sluggish play at times to force overtime against Tulane on Saturday at Bagwell Field inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, but in the end, fell one yard short.

After the Green Wave had taken the lead on the first possession of the overtime, the Pirates faced fourth-and-goal at the one as they attempted to prolong the game, but Darius Pinnix's run was thwarted short of the goal line. Tulane escaped with a 31-24 victory.

ECU dropped to 2-8 overall and 1-5 in the American Athletic Conference, and the Green Wave broke a four-game skid as they improved to 4-6 and 2-4.

"We wanted to give it to our big back and get behind our offensive line," ECU Head Coach Scotty Montgomery said. "We felt like our offensive line had done a great job to that point running the ball inside zone, outside zone. We'd stretched them a few times.

"The play before we stretched them, tried to get to the perimeter, couldn't quite get it in. We wanted to come back and lean on our offensive line a little bit. It didn't work. We had some misdirection to it with the ability to hand it off to the receiver or hand it off to the back. I like what we did by handing it off to the back. We've just got to be able to go get a half a yard."

The ending spoiled a gritty comeback by the Pirates, who trailed 24-14 after Tulane's only touchdown of the second half, a 26-yard run by Dontrell Hilliard with 36 seconds left in the third quarter. That drive was kept alive by a fake punt on fourth-and-11 from the ECU 40 as Glen Cuielette, a backup quarterback for the Green Wave, hit Darnell Mooney for an 11-yard gain.

The comeback started slowly. The defense, which came up with three takeaways on the night, put the offense in great position at the Tulane 15 after Kiante Anderson recovered a bobbled snap by Tulane quarterback Jonathan Banks with 13:28 remaining. The Pirates netted only three yards, but pulled within seven on a 29-yard field goal by Jake Verity.

ECU's defense rose to the occasion again on the ensuing possession as Aaron Ramseur picked off Banks at the Tulane 34. Ramseur fumbled during the tackle, but ECU's Davondre Robinson recovered.

The offense got inside the 10 and had fourth-and-2 at the 5, but rather than kick the Pirates went for it with 7:12 remaining. Gardner Minshew's pass to Stephen Baggett in the flat was broken up by Tulane's Taris Shenall.

"Offensively I didn't feel like we played particularly well throughout the game," Montgomery said. "That's why I went for it down there. I didn't know how close we would get back down there."

The defense again held tight, forcing a punt, and the Pirates took over at their own 11 with 2:42 to play. They covered the 89 yards in 14 plays and scored the equalizer on a pass from Minshew to Deondre Farrier on first-and-goal with 36 seconds left.

"It's something we practice all the time, the two-minute drill, so it was good to see some of the hard work paying off," said Minshew, who completed 25 of 52 passes for 228 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

"I was glad to see our guys in the two-minute drill come down and execute, get to overtime, but to come up a half yard short really makes it hard," Montgomery said.

In the overtime, ECU forced the Green Wave into a fourth-and-1 at the 16, but Banks got to the outside and ran it in.

The Pirates ran Hussein Howe on the first three plays of their possession to get it to the 7-yard line. A defensive holding call on an attempted pass to Farrier in the end zone gave ECU first down at the 4. Howe ran to the 2-yard line on first down, Minshew threw an incomplete pass on second down and Devon Anderson ran to the 1 on third down, setting up the final play.

"We just take a lot of pain out of this one, that's about it," Montgomery said. "We're getting better, but there are no moral victories. We didn't come out here tonight to play close and go to overtime. We came out here to win. We prepared to win, and unfortunately tonight we didn't."

Howe had a big game, rushing 14 times for a career-high 108 yards and one touchdown to go with five catches for 36 yards.

"It's still an L in the win-lose column," Howe said. "They all hurt."

ECU, however, had trouble stopping Hilliard, who ran 28 times for 189 yards and two scores. Banks rushed 12 times for 98 yards and completed 11 of 19 passes for 110 yards with two interceptions. The Green Wave had 325 yards on the ground and 446 overall, outgaining the Pirates by 57 yards.

ECU had an answer for each Tulane touchdown in the first half. After the Green Wave took the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards to take a 7-0 lead on quarterback Banks' 2-yard run, the Pirates had a 75-yard touchdown drive of their own, with Pinnix scoring his second touchdown of the season on a 2-yard run.

Each team had to punt on their next two possessions before a season-long problem bit the Pirates again. After a 50-yard punt by Austin Barnes gave Tulane the ball at their own 40, Hilliard took the handoff from Banks on the first play and went 60 yards for a score.

Hilliard, who finished the half with 129 yards on 16 rushes, appeared to be stopped for a short gain, but broke away and went untouched the last 50 yards of his run.

But ECU came right back and tied it on a 25-yard run by Howe, the second touchdown of his career. He cut up the middle and appeared to be caught at the 5, but stumbled away from the tackle and into the end zone. Howe had four carries for 61 yards in the first half.

Tulane, however, took a 17-14 lead into halftime after Merek Glover capped the next possession with a 26-yard field goal with 0:35 left in the second quarter.

The Pirates will close out their home schedule at noon next Saturday against Cincinnati. The Bearcats dropped to 3-7 overall and 1-5 in the American with a 35-24 loss to Temple on Friday.

Cincinnati, which beat Tulane 17-16 on Nov. 4 to snap a five-game losing streak, won last year's meeting with ECU 31-19 to extend its winning streak in the series to six. The Pirates still hold the overall advantage 12-8.