East Carolina showed up ready to play and picked up a much needed and decisive 41-3 victory over Connecticut for Homecoming in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday.
The nations top receiver Zay Jones caught 19 passes and a touchdown while quarterback Philip Nelson threw for 253 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Running back/quarterback James Summers ran for 85 more and caught a touchdown and ran for another.
Then Zay Jones got into the act from the backfield and completed his only pass of the day on off a pitch from James Summers when quarterback Philip Nelson slipped into a slot position. Summers then took the snap and threw it back to Nelson who had snuck into the end zone for a touchdown.
It contributed to ECU’s third win of the season against five losses. ECU head coach Scottie Montgomery talked about getting the proper execution on the play and it was something the Pirates had been working on.
“It was good job acting, but it was just a great throw and a great catch. We worked on it and you have to get stuff game ready. We have been working on stuff to get it game ready. The situation presented itself and I wanted to get a timeout there to see if we can get the play called and they went and executed it.”
“Zay Jones is one of the best on-field players I’ve ever seen and off the field too. I thought today the guys came out and the effort and the enthusiasm met the execution. That was probably as close (to where we are right now) to a complete game without looking at the tape that we’ve had at any time this year,” said Montgomery, “We’re definitely getting better.”
“I take my hat off to UConn. We looked at them on tape and they were so well coached. And I judge coaching probably different than a lot of other people. Their penalty discipline, the way they conduct themselves. I thought it was a physical game. I thought we won the physical battle and I take my hat off to Coach Diaco and his football team. They were physical."
The Pirates got on the board first on a James Summers four yard touchdown catch. Five minutes later UConn got their only score of the day on a 34-yard Bobby Puyol field goal to trim the lead to four.
But ECU had good success running the football against the Huskies who had their problems getting the Pirates to the ground.
“They run an odd front, so there aren’t that many guys in the box. Six at the most. So as long as we get in that gap and hit it hard, it’s hard for them to pick up that yardage," Summers told PirateIllustrated.com, "So we can pick up four or five yards each time we get the ball. We’ve just got to hit that crease and hit it hard."
Davis Plowman got into the act with a 39-yard field goal followed by a one-yard Summers run for a score to expand the ECU lead to 24-3 with four minutes to play in the third quarter.
Jones’ three-yard catch from Nelson and Summers’ 31-yard pass to Jimmy Williams ballooned the ECU lead to 38-3 before a UConn turnover seconds later led to a 25-yard Plowman field goal to round out the scoring for the Pirates in a 41-3 win.
ECU threw for 294 yards all told and ran for 136 more on forty carries as the Pirates rolled up 430 yards of total offense on the day to just 295 for the Huskies.
Montgomery said the East Carolina defense was the difference in the ballgame and he talked about it in the post game.
“The defensive mentality of not giving up anything. Trying to make sure we restricted number 5 who was a great player (wide receiver Noel Thomas) all over the field and being able to create pressure all over the field," Montgomery said, "I thought Kenwick Thompson worked as hard as any coach that I’ve seen, this week. Getting those guys to understand bringing pressure - whether it was a corner, whether it was a nickel, whether it was a safety, whether it was a backer and then putting stress on our corners to cover one on one situations, they did a really, really good job. Any time you’ve held an offense to around 300 yards of offense, you’ve done the job."
Bryant Sherreffs connected on just 16-30 for 180 yards, but a pair of interceptions proved costly for the Huskies. Noel Thomas caught seven passes for 135 yards and Arkeel Newsome caught five more, but Newsome was held to just 20 yards rushing on this day. Sherreffs led the UConn rushing attack from his quarterback position with just 46 net yards on the day.
“We turned the ball over three times. We didn’t take it away and couldn’t pick up first downs. It’s pathetic. Defensively, you are constantly on the field. It’s a short field and every time you turn around your back out there again seconds later and our backs are against the wall,” said UConn coach Bob Diaco, "That is just no way to play defense for sure. We gave up 41 points, but there is a deeper subtext there. Our defense, for a large portion there played way better than them. We need points, we need drives and that’s what creates hope and excitement and belief.”
With the victory, ECU moved to 3-5 for the season while picking up their first AAC win of the year against three conference losses. With Saturday's loss, Connecticut dropped to 3-6 and 1-5 in AAC play.
SCOTTIE MONTGOMERY POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
ECU POST GAME PLAYER REACTIONS
