Mydreon Vines

Sophomore wide receiver Mydreon Vines runs the ball during ECU's game against the University of Cincinnati.

East Carolina University rolled into the University of Cincinnati fresh off of its first American Athletic Conference win of the year, but got steamrolled Friday afternoon in a 56-6 loss.

ECU (3-8, 1-7 AAC) gave up 641 total yards of offense to Cincinnati (10-2, 5-2 AAC) and turned the ball over five times, tying a season-high it set against the University of Central Florida back on Oct. 20.

"Everything that could've gone wrong, did," ECU head coach Scottie Montgomery said per ecupirates.com. "We didn't play well at all. We had some opportunities (in the first half) offensively and let them go. Defensively we just didn't stop them."

The Bearcats first drive took just 4:14 for them to score a touchdown and go up 7-0. From there Cincinnati never looked back and were up 21-0 after the first quarter. It was 42-6 at halftime before it slowed down in the second half en route to the 56-6 finish.

The 21 points ECU gave up in the first and second quarters were the most the Pirates have allowed to any team this season. It’s the most since Memphis scored 28 in a quarter during its 70-13 win over ECU in last season’s finale.

Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder went 20-for-29 for 335 yards and four touchdowns. Three of those four touchdowns went to wide receiver Kahlil Lewis, who pulled in nine catches for 203 yards. It’s the second 200-yard receiver the Pirates have allowed this season, giving up 217 yards to Damonte Coxie in its loss to Memphis.

"Losing Colby Gore early hurt," Montgomery said. "They had a great player (Lewis), and they took advantage of the matchup. We wanted to put Colby on him a lot, but didn't get a chance to."

The Bearcats also had two 100-yard rushers, Tavion Thomas (106) and McClelland (114). ECU managed just 83 rushing yards as a team without Darius Pinnix.

The blowout loss was a struggle for freshman quarterback Holton Ahlers. Ahlers went 8-for-22 for 184 yards and threw an interception. The only ECU touchdown came when Ahlers completed a 71-yard pass to Mydreon Vines in the second quarter.

Ahlers was pulled out of the game in the second half after being banged up and limping around. Ahlers practiced just once during the short week due to the sore knee.

"He was bruised up coming into the game," Montgomery said. "It was his first game being banged up a bit, and we didn't handle it well. We didn't protect him very well. We had some musical chairs on our offensive line."

Last season, ECU defeated Cincinnati 48-20 in Greenville behind 270 receiving yards by Trevon Brown. Brown recorded just three catches for 45 yards Friday.

Reid Herring entered in relief and threw two interceptions, including a pick-six in the fourth quarter.

The 641 yards of offense for Cincinnati was the second-most allowed in a road game by ECU in school history, just behind the 706 yards by Florida State University in 1982.

ECU now will prepare for its season finale against North Carolina State next Saturday in Raleigh.

(1) comment

GaijinRonin

Coach Mo has gotta go. What a joke. He has set the program back 10 years. Looks like I will get my resume ready. I'll take half of what this guy is getting paid yearly with no bonuses to start.

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