Pirates shine in national spotlight

After two huge victories to start the 2008 season, ECU coach Skip Holtz told his players Saturday afternoon, "Welcome to big-time college football."

Under Holtz, ECU football has now stepped back into the mainstream resulting in the end of the "dark age" known as the John Thompson era.

West Virginia came to Greenville Saturday afternoon on the heels of tropical storm Hanna, and like the storm; the No.8 Mountaineers were unbelievably fast but lacked a lasting punch against the Pirates. The Mountaineers lost to ECU, 24-3, at Dowdy-Ficklen stadium in front of 43,610 fans; the fourth largest crowd in the stadium's history.

"I don't think you can put it into words," said Holtz. "I am so proud of these players and the way they have come out and completed the last few weeks. We played two elite programs and I am just proud of the way our team has grown. They are playing with desire, passion and togetherness."

The Pirates have now won three straight over ranked opponents, dating back to the Hawaii Bowl win last season. Last week, ECU defeated No.15 Virginia Tech, 27-22, before returning home this week to knock off No. 8 WVU.

"There was a time when we couldn't win three games in a year," Holtz said. "To win three in the last three weeks against three ranked opponents has been tremendous."

The defense proved to be the main headline of the day in holding a potent WVU offense to a game without a touchdown for the first time since a 45-3 loss to Miami in 2001.

The Pirates, who are now ranked No. 14 in the nation, held Heisman hopeful Pat White to 11-of-18 through the air for only 72 yards. This comes a week after White had the best passing game of his career in passing for 208 yards and five touchdowns.

While Pat White was the leading rusher for the Mountaineers with 97 yards on the ground, he had no one except sophomore running back Noel Devine to help him out. Devine finished with 94 yards on 12 carries.

"Give credit to them, they are a great team," said ECU junior defensive end C.J. Wilson, who was a part of two sacks on the day. "He [Pat White] is a great player, but you want to contain him so that's what we worked on all week. We just went out there and executed and got a victory."

The WVU offense was held to 251 yards of total offense; a stark comparison to last year when the Mountaineers racked up 599 yards of offense against ECU. The only score all day for the Mountaineers was a Pat McAfee 26-yard field goal midway through the second quarter.

While the WVU offense sputtered out on nearly every drive, the opposite could be said for the Pirate offense, which was nearly unstoppable all afternoon-ending the game with 386 yards of total offense.

ECU took an early 7-0 advantage with a Jonathan Williams 5-yard touchdown run on the Pirates' opening drive, which capped an 11-play opening drive, including an impressive Patrick Pinkney to Jamar Bryant 35-yard hookup on 3rd-and-9.

Ben Ryan added a 42-yard field goal in the middle of the second quarter but perhaps the game changing moment came when the ECU defense forced a West Virginia turnover on their own 35-yard-line. Four plays later, Pinkney threw a perfect 13-yard pass to Alex Taylor, putting ECU up 17-3 at halftime.

While the 17 points ECU scored in the first half turned out to be more than enough, Jonathan Williams once again added to the lead on the Pirates' first possession of the second half with a 1-yard touchdown run. The result was a 24-3 ECU advantage that would hold the rest of the way.

"I told this team I thought they were the better football team coming into this game," Holtz said. "I told them we had to believe; that it wasn't going to take an out of the body experience to win."

Senior quarterback Patrick Pinkney had another great day for the Pirates, going 22-of-28 for 236 yards and one touchdown. While Pat White's newfound passing ability was the headline heading into the game, Pinkney flew under the radar and in turn, played an efficient game.

"West Virginia is a great team, but we're a great team too," said Pinkney. "The best team won today."

The Pirates now turn their focus to Conference USA foe Tulane as they travel to New Orleans to open up conference play.

If the hype of the conference opener wasn't enough, now ECU must worry about handling the attention that comes with knocking off two straight ranked opponents to open the season.

If the victory over West Virginia is an indication, each Pirate victory from here on out will serve as a beacon for more and more attention.

"We've learned how to win, but can we learn how to handle winning," Holtz said. "Today [West Virginia victory] was a big step in the right direction."

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