It’s hard enough to win a college football game with your head coach and starting quarterback available, much less without either. As a result, it was anything but pretty for ECU in Raleigh on Saturday as the Wolfpack took full advantage of the situation and rolled the rudderless Pirates 58-3 in Carter-Finley Stadium.
With the win, the Wolfpack improved to 9-3 while ECU fell to 3-9 to mercifully end one of ECU’s least memorable seasons ever.
Quarterback Holton Ahlers did not play due to a knee injury. Scottie Montgomery was unceremoniously fired earlier in the week. Then a clearly uninspired Reid Herring stepped in at quarterback but seemed largely disinterested and was totally ineffective against a Wolfpack team that manhandled the Pirates from pillar to post.
It will certainly go down as one of ECU’s most embarrassing losses ever if not the most.
Ryan Finley threw the ball all over the lot for 409 yards and three touchdowns while Reggie Gallaspy rushed for 220 yards and a pair of touchdowns for State in the win. Herring was limited to just 69 yards passing and one interception before going out with a shoulder injury in the second half. Anthony Scott rushed for 52 yards in his final appearance in a Pirate uniform.
N.C. State rolled up 655 yards of total offense to just 104 for East Carolina.
Chris Dunn got N.C. State on the scoreboard first just five minutes into the contest with a 23-yard field goal after ECU won the toss and opted to defer. The 69-yard drive gave the Wolfpack an early 3-0 lead.
With 4:05 to go in the first quarter Ryan Finley then found Kelvin Harman in the left corner of the end zone for a 14-yard Wolfpack touchdown. The nine play 80-yard drive gave State a quick 10-0 lead.
N.C. State’s third score of the game came on a Reggie Gallaspy’s 11-yard touchdown run that added to the Wolfpack lead to make it 17-0 with ten seconds to go in the first quarter.
Less than three minutes later, Ryan Finley found Jakobi Meyers for a 24-yard strike that extended the Wolfpack margin to 24-0.
Chris Dunn got his second field goal of the game and tied the single season school record of twenty field goals with five seconds to go in the half to give N.C. State a 27-0 lead at the break.
Ryan Finley threw for 329 yards in the first half alone to just 69 yards passing for ECU. State generated 388 first half yards offensively to 73 for the Pirates.
With 6:49 to go in the third quarter, Finley found Thayer Thomas for a three-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone for a 34-0 lead.
Kingsley Ifedi then came out of the dog house for the injured Reid Herring. Ifedi was put in a less than advantageous position play wise and threw an interception to Jarius Morehead in the deep flat that gave N.C. State the ball again deep in ECU territory. Gallaspy then ran it in four yards to make it 41-0 to break the single season touchdown record in Raleigh with 19..
Chris Dunn’s field goal early in the fourth quarter then made it 44-0.
N.C. State added insult to injury when center Garrett Bradbury lined up in the backfield and was handed the football for a one-yard touchdown after Brock Miller’s fumble recovery of a Hussein Howe ECU fumble. That made it 51-0.
Reggie Gallaspy’s 86-yard run in the fourth quarter from his own goal line led to a William Cornwell touchdown that punctuated the win to make the score 58-0.
Only Jake Verity’s 46-yard field goal as time expired kept ECU’s 21 year scoring streak in tact in a 58-3 loss.
