Pirates find redemption at home

On a cold and rainy Saturday, the season was at a crossroads for ECU going into a Conference-USA East Division clash against Memphis.

A defeat to the Tigers after three straight ECU losses would have surely meant the beginning of the end of a promising season. However, losing was not an option for the determined Pirates, as they rolled to a 30-10 victory.

"We needed this one," said ECU coach Skip Holtz, whose squads have never lost four straight games. "It was important for our morale because we had a tough non-conference schedule that beat us up a little bit. It was good to have the opportunity to come home and continue league play and now sit at 2-1 in C-USA."

The win is the first for ECU since defeating Tulane on Sept. 13. Between victories, ECU went from No.14 in the nation to not being ranked at all-from national media darlings to one of college football's biggest disappointments.

"We started off so strong and knowing how much potential we had … to kind of stub our toe the last three games," said ECU quarterback Rob Kass. "We had opportunities to put the games away. We had opportunities where we were within seven points. To really come back and win a conference game and really get back on the winning side speaks volumes about this team."

The main buzz the week going into the game was Holtz's plan to rotate his quarterbacks, going back to a two-quarterback system employed much of last season.

Senior signal caller Patrick Pinkney played the first two series. On the third, Kass came in and wouldn't return to the bench for the remainder of the day. Kass completed 9-of-17 passes for 167 yards and two touchdowns. Both of his touchdown passes came in the third quarter, with a 42-yard strike to senior running back Brandon Simmons followed by a 28-yard strike to sophomore receiver Dwayne Harris.

"I thought he did a pretty good job of managing the team," Holtz said of Kass. "He made some nice throws out there. It probably wasn't a fair game to judge him on with the rain and weather being what it was."

Saturday's victory wasn't as easy as the score indicates. J.J. Milbrook's muffed punt gave Memphis the ball at the ECU 7-yard line. The Tigers were able to convert in three plays behind a Curtis Steele 4-yard rushing touchdown and took a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter.

Memphis scored again in the second quarter on a Vinny Zaccario 20-yard field goal to conclude a 16-play, 58-yard drive giving the Tigers a 10-7 halftime lead.

Steele was the Tigers' primary weapon after starting quarterback Arkelon Hall left with a broken thumb and backup Will Hudgens left shortly after with a leg injury. Steele was only able to run for 43 yards on 14 carries for the day. Memphis finished with 102 rushing yards, most of which came when the game's outcome was already decided.

But, the Pirate defense was impressive. It finally looked like the unit that took the field in the first three games of the season. ECU held the Tigers to 14-of-23 passing for only 82 yards, while picking off one pass. The Pirates allowed 184 offensive yards, a stark difference from the 430 that Virginia put up last week.

"I don't really care who we were playing, I just feeling like everybody was focused, everybody was honing in on their assignments," said ECU linebacker Pierre Bell, who recorded seven total tackles against the Tigers.

For the first few series, ECU came out on offense sluggish. The Pirates would move the ball and pick up a couple first downs only to have their early drives eventually stall out. The ECU sideline was relatively dead--an indication of a team still wounded by their previous month of play.

With 6:20 left in the second quarter, sophomore running back Jonathan Williams raced down the field for a 68-yard touchdown thanks to a huge hole provided by the offensive line. It proved to be just the spark ECU needed.

"The O-line did a great job on that play," said Williams, who ran for 108 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. "They just went out there and kept pushing and pushing and we finally broke one."

ECU has a chance to rest up with a bye week and get ready for a critical conference stretch that starts on Nov. 2 when the Pirates travel to Orlando, Fla. to take on UCF for an ESPN Sunday night game.

This writer can be contacted at sports@theeastcarolinian.com.