THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 1, 1995 TAG: 9510010166
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GREENVILLE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
Looking for the best team in a bad Big East? Try East Carolina.
After knocking Syracuse out of the top 25 earlier in the month, the Pirates took the measure of West Virginia Saturday, stopping the Mountaineers 23-20 in front of 34,108 at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The wins would give the 3-2 Pirates possession of first place in the Big East, provided of course that East Carolina's long-expressed desire to join the conference had been granted.
``It'd feel good - if we were in there,'' said ECU defensive coordinator Paul Jette. ``Maybe this will get their attention.''
Jette did most of the talking in an unusual postgame press conference in which Pirate coach Steve Logan spoke for two minutes and then literally ran out the door - his way of giving credit to an often-maligned East Carolina defense.
``I'm turning this press conference over to coach Jette,'' Logan said. ``The guy's getting it done. I don't want to hear that we don't have any players. I don't want to hear that crap. We're playing big-time defense. Seventeen of those points out there on that board are attributed to bad offense.''
Indeed, East Carolina's offense put its defense in bad spots all afternoon, turning the ball over five times. West Virginia (2-3) capitalized just once, however, scoring a second-quarter touchdown after East Carolina's Jerris McPhail fumbled at the Pirate 11.
And it was the Pirates' defense that came up with the game-turning play, forcing a fumble that set up a game-winning field goal by East Carolina's Chad Holcomb.
The play came with 6:32 left, the score tied at 20 and West Virginia driving. Mountaineer quarterback Eric Boykin lobbed a screen pass to fullback Kantroy Barber, who turned upfield but had the ball stripped away by Pirate linebacker Marvin Burke. Daren Hart fell on it and East Carolina took over at its own 37.
The Pirates drove to the West Virginia 10, setting up a 27-yard field goal by Holcombe. The kick gave East Carolina its first win over West Virginia in nine tries.
``We had stopped moving the ball,'' Pirate quarterback Marcus Crandell said. ``But there's an ebb and flow to every game. We flowed at the beginning, then they started flowing. Then we were able to start flowing again.''
West Virginia went up 3-0 but was soon buried in a barrage of East Carolina points. After the Mountaineer score, the Pirates took over at their 33 and struck on their first play from scrimmage, a 67-yard pass from Crandell to Larry Shannon.
The Mountaineers opened the game in man-to-man coverage and the Pirates thought Shannon, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, could take advantage of freshman cornerback Charles Fisher.
He did, reaching over the 6-1 Fisher to snare the Crandell pass at the 15 and run untouched into the end zone.
The Pirates scored again on their next possession. They were moving the ball so effectively that two possessions later they scored three times. The first two touchdowns were called back because of penalties, but the Pirates just reloaded and Crandell hit Shannon from 9 yards out to give East Carolina a 20-3 lead with 12:26 left in the half.
But East Carolina's defense stalled after that, and the Mountaineers began moving the ball themselves after Boykin took over at quarterback for starter Chad Johnston, who left the game with 6:18 in the half with a sprained knee.
McPhail's fumble set up a 2-yard run by Barber that made it 20-9 just 15 seconds before halftime. Then Boykins hit David Saunders with a 50-yard pass to make it 20-15, with 6:26 left in the third. West Virginia scored again when J.T. Thomas tackled Crandell for a safety, and again on a 31-yard field goal by Brian Bauman that tied the score at 20 with 11:38 to go.
And West Virginia was on the march again when Barber fumbled five minutes later.
``We finally had things going our way,'' West Virginia coach Don Nehlen said. ``We had them on their heels.''
Instead, East Carolina came away with a win that had some Pirate players talking about respect - a familiar theme at independent, out-of-the way ECU.
Looking for the best team in the Carolinas? Look no further, said linebacker Mark Libiano.
``The records speak for themselves,'' Libiano said. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
East Carolina linebacker Marvin Burke pulls down West Virginia
quarterback Chad Johnston.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
East Carolina's Emmanuel McDaniel intercepts a pass intended for
West Virginia's Rahsaan Vanterpool.
by CNB