Scottie Montgomery

Scottie Montgomery at the podium

After continued red zone woes, the East Carolina Pirates continued its three-game losing streak against Central Florida and dropped its first conference game in the Scottie Montgomery era.

 

“Turnovers once again and special teams just was the undoing of our football team,” said Montgomery. “We work really hard on that, and a lot of people know that.”

 

With the Pirates suffering from injuries, including defensive lineman Demetri McGill, the Pirates lost even more today with another defensive injury. Early in the game cornerback Corey Seargent went down in pain, and did not return to the game.

 

ECU also suffered a major loss when UCF’s linebacker Mark Rucker was called for targeting against quarterback Philip Nelson. Nelson did not return to the game after the hit, and ECU brought in sophomore Gardner Minshew.

 

Even after personnel changes on special teams, the Pirates still continued to struggle.

 

Just after ECU struck first on the scoreboard with a touchdown pass to Deondre Farrier, UCF returned the kickoff the length of the field to tie the game. Then, after the touchdown, the Pirates worked to try and regain the lead as they set up for a 31-yard field goal, the kick was tipped, however, resulting in a missed field goal for the third straight game.

 

“The kickoff return after being able to score and getting that good feel for what they were doing on defense was really really hard for our football team,” Montgomery said.

 

A few possessions later, the Pirates were backed up into their own end zone and the Knights tackled running back Devin Anderson for a safety, the second consecutive game the Pirates have allowed a safety. And until this season, ECU had only allowed two safeties in a nine-year span.

 

In the first half, the ECU defense held the Knights to just 26 yards passing. The Pirates however, racked up 24 yards with Zay Jones leading with eight receptions for a total of 71 yards. Jones closed out the day with a total of 122 yards, making this his fourth game of the season with 100 receiving yards. Wide receivers Jimmy Williams and Quay Johnson also broke 100 yards in the game with 145 and 110, respectively.

 

At the end of the third quarter the game was still within reach for the Pirates with a score of 23-21 in favor of the Knights.

 

In the fourth quarter, as Minshew stepped in to fill-in for the injured Nelson, he was already backed up into his own end zone. He attempted to throw a pass, but it was intercepted on the four-yard line and returned for a touchdown, killing the momentum ECU had built. The Knights then went on to claim their first American Athletic Conference win of the season, 47-29 over the Pirates.

 

“We knew we were still down a score. We just had the mindset our defense was going to get a stop, which they did a great job doing all day,” said offensive lineman J.T. Boyd. “We just have to keep them off the field too because they were working their tails off in the first half and even into the second half, and when they get stops we have to be able to score.”

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