ECU Falls To ULL
NEW ORLEANS - Terrance Broadway threw for 316 yards and a touchdown and ran for another to lead Louisiana-Lafayette to a 43-34 win over ECU in the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
Broadway opened the scoring with a 12 yard touchdown with 8:10 in the first quarter. Harry Peoples' only carry of the day generated ULL's second score of the contest on a ten yard run as the Ragin' Cajuns went up early by two touchdowns.
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East Carolina(8-5) got on the scoreboard a little over two minutes into the second quarter when senior running back Reggie Bullock scampered in from five yards out to cap a five play 77 yard drive.
A minute and a half later, Alonzo Harris scored the first of his two touchdowns from 6 yards out. When Louisiana stopped ECU on the next drive, Harris ripped off a 68 yard touchdown run to open up a 28-7 lead midway through the second quarter.
The Pirates struck back twice before halftime when Justin Hardy caught a 19 yard touchdown pass from Shane Carden who after a ULL fumble connected again, this time to Danny Webster for a 16 yard score. Warren Harvey's PAT cut the lead to seven with three minutes to go before intermission.
Lafayette's Brett Baer nailed a 50 yard field goal as time expired to give the Ragin' Cajuns a 31-21 lead at intermission.
ECU place kicker Warren Harvey got the Pirates on the scoreboard about five minutes into the third quarter on a 45 yard field goal to close to within six at 31-24.
Then Reggie Bullock scored the second of his two touchdowns on a 13 yard run. Harvey's PAT tied the game at 31-31.
It didn't take the Ragin' Cajuns long to strike back when Javone Lawson hauled in a 14 yard TD pass from Broadway but Baer's PAT was blocked leaving Louisiana Lafayette(9-4) up by six late in the third stanza.
Harvey connected again from 26 yards out to trim the lead to just three points at 37-34 on the opening drive of the fourth quarter.
But two Brett Baer field goals iced the game down the stretch before the Cajuns ran out the clock for their 9th victory of the season.
Alonzo Harris was a work horse for ULL with 125 yards on 21 carries while quarterback Terrance Broadway ran for 114 yards in 15 carries.
Jamal Robinson led the Ragin' Cajun receiver
corp with six big catches including a 39 yard hook up.
Andrew Bodenheimer and Justin Jones led the Pirate receiver corp with five catches apiece for 124 yards combined whle Danny Webster caught four passes for 43 yards.
Reggie Bullock ended up with 104 yards in his final game as a Pirate on just 17 carries while Tay Cooper was bottled up by the ULL defense for most of the game. He ended up with just 25 yards on 9 carries.
But the story of the game for East Carolina was wide open dropped passes, several of which were sure touchdowns had they been caught in a game where the Pirates were more snake bitten than lucky.
ULL ran for 267 yards as a team while holding ECU to 152 yards. The Ragin' Cajuns passed for 324 yards while ECU was limited just 278.
Both quarterbacks threw one interception and both teams scored every time they got into the redzone in a wild and wooly contest that should prove to be one of the more interesting bowls of the holiday season.