East Carolina Pirates Use Ground to beat the Hokies
The East Carolina Pirates showed their ingenuity yesterday in a big win over the Virginia Tech Hokies. Bad rainy weather was a common factor in all of the games played in North Carolina yesterday. Yet the Pirates essentially embraced the conditions and ran a gameplan to turn the weather against the Hokies.
They did this by utilizing junior quarterback James Summers as a run option. No one was prepared for that as Summers had been thought to have been converted to wide receiver due to his size. However such an inventive strategy could not have been better timed. The junior quarterback ran and plowed his way through Hokie defenders for 169 rushing yards.
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X – Summers League
Against the Hokies and the slick, the Pirates needed more ball control offense to prevent turnovers. They were not perfect there, but they ultimately did not hurt themselves too much. Summers, the former North Carolina signee and JUCO transfer, picked where he wanted to go with the ball in an offense that seemed more West Virginia inspired than Air Raid. Summers had two touchdown runs and a touchdown pass. His 41 yard run included pulling away from a Hokie lineman to dash for the score.
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Y – Battle of the Backups
Virginia Tech came into this game without its starting quarterback, instead relying on junior Brendan Motley. Motley, like Summers, was a big bodied quarterback who could run. Also like Summers, Motley called his own number a goodly amount of times. He threw for 281 and ran for another 85 with a rushing touchdown, passing touchdown, and an interception.
Z – Who Needs Stats?
If one did not look at the score, one would have thought the Hokies won this game. They had more total yards, more time of possession, fewer turnovers, but clearly they were lacking in the main idea. There were not enough points. The Hokies were forced to play catch-up much of the game and they were not really designed to do that in the rain.
The East Carolina Pirates travel to SMU next week.