East Carolina escapes scare from UConn, 31-21
No. 18 East Carolina came into tonight’s matchup against UConn hoping to get an impressive win at home to impress the College Football Playoff selection committee.
Looking at it on paper, the Huskies came in having dropped four of their last five games leading to a winless record in conference play, so no one expected them to give ECU as much of a game as they did.
Yet somehow they managed to pull of a 31-21 win over the Huskies after scoring 10 unanswered points in the final minutes to make ECU bowl eligible for the eighth time in the past nine seasons.
The Pirates iced the 31-21 win on a nine-yard touchdown run by Breon Allen after a long drive late in the fourth quarter. Allen had two touchdowns on the night along with 65 yards on the ground.
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The touchdown followed up a successful field goal from Warren Harvey that put the Pirates up 24-21 midway through quarter. That try came after he missed a 33-yard kick in the second quarter.
Shane Carden had another huge night throwing the ball, totaling up 445 yards and two touchdowns including a a diving catch by Justin Hardy that put the Pirates up early in the first quarter.
Hardy also led in receiving yards with 186, while Cam Worthy also had an 100-plus yard game, but did not find the endzone.
Despite coming in as 28-point underdogs, the UConn defense managed to hold East Carolina back throughout the firs three quarters, while the offense was able to keep up the pace as well.
Chandler Whitmer had a season-high 303 yards passing along with two touchdowns of his own, both coming in the third quarter as UConn tied the game on both scores.
The Pirates also suffered from mistakes and penalties, totaling up 105 yards on 11 fouls, some of which being drive-killing holding penalties on the offensive line.
ECU (6-1, 3-0 AAC), will get a long week as they travel to Philidelphia to take on Temple next Saturday at noon.