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Pirates break out big plays in Purple-Gold game

By Nathan Summers


Sunday, April 19, 2009

From a 59-yard touchdown pass to a 50-yard scoring run to a 49-yard field goal, big plays are back at East Carolina.

A football team that gutted out six of its nine wins last season by a margin of a touchdown or less combined to score 41 points in Saturday’s Purple-Gold scrimmage.

The team featuring ECU’s top offensive unit rung up a 31-10 victory against the squad with the No. 1 defense, a sign that this year’s edition of the Pirates is more potent than the one which struggled to score 20 points per game in 2008.

“I’m encouraged with our skill players, and I think we have some playmakers,” ECU head coach Skip Holtz said after watching the game from a coach’s box above the stadium. “One of the things we lacked, especially the second half of last year, was a big-play threat. I think some guys are starting to step up and show that they have the ability to do that.”

Even senior quarterback Patrick Pinkney was impressed with the results.

He compiled 229 yards passing and threw a pair of touchdown passes, while five of his receivers made at least three catches apiece. On the other side, redshirt freshman passer Josh Jordan threw for 202 yards.

“I thought it was the best spring game since I’ve been here,” said Pinkney, who will enter his final season as the Pirates’ fifth all-time leading passer. “We never put up 31 points on any team. When you see that, you get a lot of confidence.”

Behind Jordan, spring-long standout running back Brandon Jackson, an incoming sophomore transfer from Kentucky, put the heat on his fellow backs by finishing with a game-best 55 yards on 15 carries.

On the other side, senior J.R. Rogers, who has seen limited action since his own transfer two years ago from Bakersfield (Calif.) Community College, accrued 50 of his 51 rush yards on one dash into the end zone that capped the scoring in the game in the fourth quarter.

After the game was knotted at 10-10 at halftime, the team with the top offense acted like it, reeling off three unanswered touchdowns in the second half.

Pinkney was jarred with a hit at the goalline but was ruled to have broken the plane of the end zone for an early third quarter score that put his team in front for good.

But there were still some fireworks left inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. On a play typical of the Pirate offense under Holtz and coordinators Todd Fitch and Steve Shankweiler, Pinkney zipped a screen pass to his left that was tucked in by sophomore Michael Bowman, who turned inside, found a lane and zoomed against the grain 59 yards for a touchdown.

Bowman made three grabs for 72 yards and two touchdowns. The Pirates also got promising results in the pass game from Jacobi Jenkins (5 receptions, 55 yards), Darryl Freeney (5-49), Jamar Bryant (3-58), Joe Womack (3-44), Andrew Bodenheimer (3-40), J.R. Rogers (5-31) and Kevin Gidrey (3-20).

“It was just a good game all around, good play-calling,” Bowman said. “Coach Fitch said they were going to try to get me the ball, so when I got it, I just tried to make a big play. It was a great atmosphere, and I appreciate all the fans coming out. It was a great effort by both teams.”

Holtz agreed that players like Bowman have been big-play threats all spring.

“Michael Bowman has been doing some special things with the ball under his arm pretty much every scrimmage,” Holtz said, adding that a final spring depth chart will likely come out by the end of next week. “We have as much talent on this team, probably, than we’ve ever had. I was pleased with spring and pleased with the progress.”

Defensively, safety Levin Neal, a transfer from N.C. State, capped his big spring with 5.5 tackles, while linebacker Steve Spence added a game-high six stops and lineman A.J. Johnson wrapped up 5.5 and a sack. Linval Joseph and Allen Crowder also recorded sacks, and linebacker Chris Mattocks had two forced fumbles and an interception.

Matt Dodge’s 49-yard field goal got the ECU squad on the board in the opening quarter after Pinkney connected twice with H-back Gidrey and once with receiver Reyn Willis to move the ball.

Later in the first quarter, Mattocks forced Jenkins to fumble after a catch, sending the ECU offense back onto the field.

Pinkney tossed a 33-yard strike to Womack along the right sideline to jump-start the drive, which was finished off with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Bowman to put ECU ahead 10-0.

But the Pirates countered to tie the game with 10 unanswered points in the second quarter, thanks largely to Jackson, who churned out 48 yards in the first half.

Jackson carried the Pirates offense down the field on the opening drive of the second quarter, carrying the ball five times, but a Jordan pass was deflected into the hands of Mattocks, who made his second turnover of the game.

The Pirates needed only five plays on their next drive, including Jordan’s 45-yard pass down the left sideline to Bryant, to set up Ben Ryan’s 22-yard field goal to make it 10-3.

The game was knotted later in the second when Jordan plunged over the goal line to cap a six-play scoring drive. The QB’s 16-yard pass over the middle to D.J. McFadden helped it happen.

Contact Nathan Summers at nsummers@coxnc.com or (252)329-9595.