ECU Drops Season Finale At NC State

Saturday, December 1

Raleigh, NC

12:00 P.M.

East Carolina University

NC State

December 01, 2018 | Football

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Final Stats (PDF) l ECU Notes (PDF)

RALEIGH, N.C. – ECU's football team walked out of Carter-Finley Stadium late Saturday afternoon with 58-3 loss to NC State and a third consecutive 3-9 season.

Now the attention turns to finding a new leader for the program and beginning a major rebuild before the Pirates return to Raleigh to open the 2019 season.

Scottie Montgomery's tenure as head coach ended with his dismissal Thursday, just two days before the season-ending game that was added after each team had a high-profile game washed out by Hurricane Florence. Arguably Montgomery's highlight at ECU came in just his second game in a 33-30 win over NC State in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, giving the Pirates their third-straight win against the Wolfpack.

First-year defensive coordinator David Blackwell inherited the coaching duties for Saturday's finale, but the Pirates could not match the Wolfpack's deep and talented offense, especially with freshman quarterback Holton Ahlers sidelined with a right knee sprain. The only thing they salvaged was avoiding being shut out for the first time 21 years when Jake Verity kicked a 46-yard field goal on the game's final play.

"They're a good group of young men," Blackwell said of his team. "They fight their tails off. We just ran out of weapons today. We got so thin on the offensive line, but they keep fighting. They keep trying. Sometimes it just isn't good enough."

NC State (9-3) established its dominance from the start in front of a crowd of 57,223 as it picked up its ninth win and tuned up for a fifth-straight bowl appearance. The Wolfpack finished with 655 yards and limited the Pirates to just 104. That total stood at 55 yards before Anthony Scott's 53-yard dash with less than two minutes left. The Wolfpack also had a 32-4 advantage in first downs.

Senior quarterback Ryan Finley wrapped up his final home game by completing 32 of 44 passes for 409 yards and three touchdowns. His favorite target was junior wide receiver Jakobi Meyers, who had 13 catches for a career-best 163 yards and one score.

Senior running back Reggie Gallaspy, coming off a five-touchdown performance in last week's overtime win at UNC, gave NC State its third consecutive 1,000-yard rusher, grinding out a career-high 220 yards on 24 carries and a pair of scores.

Center Garrett Bradbury lined up at fullback in the fourth quarter and barreled in on a 1-yard run to give NC State a 51-0 lead. Senior reserve quarterback Woody Cornwell scored from 14 yards out on his only career carry making it 58-0.

For the second-straight week, the Pirates' fate essentially was sealed by halftime. After trailing Cincinnati 42-6 in the first half in what ended up a 56-6 rout, ECU suffered its first shutout after two quarters and trailed NC State 27-0.

The Wolfpack picked up a field goal and three touchdowns on the first four possessions and capped the half with Chris Dunn's 28-yard field goal, his 20th of the season to tie a single-season school record.

Dunn broke the record with 12:57 to play, booting a 26-yarder for his 13th consecutive made field goal and a 44-0 lead. Finley had 329 yards through the air by halftime, and the Wolfpack owned a 388-73 advantage in total yards. Reid Herring, starting for the injured Ahlers, passed for just 69 yards in the opening half, completing 8 of 19 passes with one interception, picked off by Nate McCloud at the 1-yard line and ending the Pirates' most serious early threat.

ECU came up with a pair of turnovers but could not cash them in. Freshman Daniel Charles snared a Finley pass to stop one Wolfpack threat, and Bennet Boateng pounced on a Thayer Thomas fumble of a punt.

The Pirates struggled on third down, converting just 1 of 8 in the first half – one apparent conversion was overturned on a review of a pass to Tahj Deans – and 1 of 15 for the game. The Wolfpack converted 5 of 8 third downs in the opening half and 10 of 16 for the game, using mostly big plays.

NC State settled for a field goal after reaching the 5 on its first possession, then found the end zone on three-straight series for a 24-0 lead. Finley sandwiched a pair of touchdown passes around an 11-yard run by Gallaspy, tossing 11 yards to Harmon and 24 yards to Meyers.

ECU's quarterback dilemma clouded even more with 10:55 left in the third quarter when Herring suffered am apparent shoulder injury on a sack by Tim Kidd-Glass.

Kingsley Ifedi entered for just one series, exiting after his first pass was intercepted by Jarius Morehead and returned 27 yards to the ECU 5. Gallaspy scored two plays later for his 19th rushing TD of the season.

The Pirates turned to freshman Caiden Norman of nearby Clayton to close out the game. He attempted two passes and completed one for four yards.

ECU senior Nate Harvey capped of the 2018 campaign with 25.5 TFLs (-125 yards) and with his nine-yard sack in the second quarter, he tied The American single-season sack record held by Louisville's Marcus Smith (14.5 in 2013) and fell a half sack short of tying the ECU single-season record of 15.0, which is held by Rod Coleman (1997).

The Pirates' defense set the single-season record with 105 TFLs surpassing the previous mark of 98, which was set in 2007.

Ahlers will be back to lead the 2019 team along with some highly touted recruits. Who leads them from the sidelines will be determined soon.

Blackwell, a former ECU player, hopes to be part of that equation but did not say if he wanted to be head coach.

"I love this university," he said. "I love this program. It's a part of me. It's too early to talk about that."

Blackwell said he had been in contact with Montgomery since Thursday's announcement.

"I talked to (Montgomery) late Thursday night and then we've stayed in touch," Blackwell said. "One thing about Scottie Montgomery is he's not an excuse-maker. He takes responsibility and my conversations with him were him apologizing a lot to the staff and us about feeling like he let us down.

"My side of that is we feel like as coaches that we let him down. … There were so many positives throughout the season that got lost in the last two games."

- Mike Grizzard