Turnovers Doom Pirates in Season-Opening Setback

Sunday, September 2

Greenville, N.C.

3:30 p.m.

East Carolina University

0-1

North Carolina A&T

2-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

N.C. A&T

ECU

September 02, 2018 | Football

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Final Stats l ECU Notes l Quotes

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Albeit a day later than expected, ECU opened season three under head coach Scottie Montgomery on Sunday with a 28-23 loss to North Carolina A&T on Bagwell Field inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

Mistakes by the Pirates, including a pair of turnovers at the A&T 2-yard line, enabled the Aggies to stay in it, and they took the lead for good with a 17-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Kylil Carter to Elijah Bell with 7:05 remaining. ECU had three more possessions after that, including two in A&T territory, but was unable to score.

The last time the Pirates played at home on a Sunday, they used a Hail Mary pass on the last play of the game to beat Tulsa 51-49 in the opener in 2010. They had a Hail Mary attempt fail against the Aggies as Reid Herring's 35-yard throw to Tahj Deans bounced off of Deans and into the arms of A&T's Timadre Abram for an interception as the clock ran out.

After going 12-0 a year ago, the Aggies now are 2-0 this season. ECU is 0-1 going into a home game against North Carolina at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

"This was definitely not the finish that we thought that we would have," Montgomery said. "We really, really mismanaged the last few downs of the game."

The Pirates took over at their own 38 with no timeouts and 2:07 remaining after forcing an A&T punt. Hussein Howe kept the possession alive with an 8-yard run on fourth-and-1 at the ECU 47 with 1:39 left. A 9-yard pass to Anthony Scott and a 1-yard run by Herring put the ball at the 35, where an incomplete pass stopped the clock with 42 seconds left.

After a 5-yard pass to Terrell Green, ECU had third-and-5 at the 30. Herring threw to Scott in the middle of the field, and the play resulted in a 6-yard loss with the clock running.

There was confusion at that point, and the Pirates got the final play off in the final seconds.

"You can't finish football games like that," Montgomery said. "We knew it would be a tough game to beat a team that hadn't lost in so long. We had the opportunity at the end to do it. We managed the clock correctly, got the ball back with the two-minute drill, then completed the ball inbounds where you just can't do that."

In his first game as a starter, Herring finished 37-for-65 for 309 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. The first interception was a game-changer, though.

After ECU had taken the early lead on a 22-yard field goal by Jake Verity at the tail end of their opening drive, A&T was forced to punt and the Pirates were back in business. On a possession highlighted by a one-handed grab good for 22 yards down the left sideline by Trevon Brown, they moved to the A&T 2-yard line and had first and goal when Herring made the mistake. He threw into coverage in the middle of the end zone in front of the post, where A&T's Mac McCain intercepted in front of Green and took it the length of the field for a touchdown. The Aggies led 7-3.

"I just made a bad throw," Herring said. "I was behind the receiver. I should've led him more. That was a big play, probably ended up costing us the game. I just have to be smarter with the football."

The Pirates also lost a chance when Trace Christian fumbled on second-and-goal at the 2 with 10:10 left in the third quarter.

"We put the ball on the ground way too many times since I've been here," Montgomery said. "We just can't have that happen. And all that goes directly to me. There's no way that I can point the finger at any of these kids. They prepared harder than any group I've ever been around and did exactly what we asked them to do."

Scott was ECU's leading rusher with 34 yards on 12 carries. Green had 10 catches for 85, Proehl had nine for 65 with one score, Brown had seven for 57 and Farrier had five for 57 and a touchdown.

Defensively, the Pirates held A&T to 269 yards. Nate Harvey led with eight tackles.

"To be honest, I don't really care how I did today," Harvey said. "I want to be a team player and I want the win. We took some big steps forward as a defense. The defensive line did a great job. The linebackers, safeties, nickels, we all did a good job."

Despite sizeable advantages in total plays (50-26), first downs (17-7) passing yards (180-67) and total offense (224-113), the Pirates had just the 3-point lead at halftime. The Aggies were able to stay close despite all of that and the fact that they were whistled 11 times for 88 yards in penalties.

ECU took a 10-7 lead as Herring completed an 11-play, 61-yard drive with a 7-yard scoring toss over the middle to Proehl.

A&T went 3-and-out again, and ECU embarked on another scoring drive. Herring hit Farrier on a 6-yard touchdown pass as the Pirates went up 17-7 with 5:07 left in the first half.

The teams traded 3-and-outs again before A&T managed a late scoring drive to pull within three. Lamar Raynard, who missed on his first six attempts of the game before completing five of his next six to close the first half, hit Zachary Leslie on a 12-yard touchdown pass with six seconds left in the second quarter. The drive was kept alive with 29 seconds left when Raynard hit Marquell Cartwright coming out of the backfield for an 18-yard gain on third-and-18 from the ECU 47.

Leslie also caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Carter early in the fourth quarter.

"There was a great amount of unity in the locker room just now," Montgomery said. "We've been through a lot together. We didn't think this is something we would be going through, but we are. We're going to manage it as well as we can. We understand that is not acceptable. We're going to continue to grow this football program and play better football in the future."

-Joe Corley