LYNCHBURG, Va. — Nothing good ever happens after midnight, so the saying goes.
The East Carolina football team learned that lesson the hard way on Saturday (and Sunday) in Lynchburg, Va. as the Pirates lost to host Liberty, 35-24, to end the non-conference portion of the season.
It was quite literally football after dark inside Liberty University’s Williams Stadium as the lights were linked to a timer. At midnight, the playing field went dark for a few minutes as the operations crew raced to turn the high-beams on.
ECU (2-2) never woke up after that and squandered a 17-point lead in the loss. It was the second straight week the Pirates led by more than two touchdowns, only to allow their opponent to storm back and steal a win.
“We got off to a really fast start and had all the momentum in the first half,” ECU coach Mike Houston said. “We left some points on the board and you can’t do that against a good team. And then we let them get the momentum back.”
The game began on time and each offense got in one series — both went three-and-out — before enduring a nearly five-hour delay as heavy storms gripped the area.
The game restarted at 10:45 p.m. and the Pirates started fast.
They erupted to score the game’s first 17 points. But much like the previous week’s 16-point lead against Appalachian State, the Pirates couldn’t hold their ground as Liberty raced back into the game by mounting long scoring drives.
Quarterback Jake Garcia opened the scoring by shedding a tackle in the backfield and scampering eight yards for a touchdown. Running back Marlon Gunn Jr. punched home his first career touchdown with a thundering 1-yard run to push the lead to 14-0 in the first quarter.
Andrew Conrad converted a 35-yard field goal early in the second quarter for a 17-0 lead and the Pirates looked like they had everything figured out. ECU added to the Flames’ early-game misery when defensive back Isaiah Brown-Murray picked off Kaidon Salter and returned the interception to the 7-yard line to set up the offense with a first-and-goal.
The offense came up empty, however, as a false start pushed the Pirates back to the 12. Following incompletions on second and third down, Conrad missed a 25-yard field goal try.
That missed opportunity was all the life Liberty needed as it answered the empty drive by going the length of the field for a touchdown to cut the ECU lead to 17-7 at halftime.
“After the missed field goal in the second quarter, that long, sustained drive to get the touchdown, we had multiple opportunities to get off the field and we didn’t do it,” Houston said. “And we can’t blame anybody but ourselves. That kind of got the momentum back and they got the ball to start the second half and they did the same thing again.”
The Flames (3-0) extended their regular-season win streak to 15 games, dating to the start of last season. They did so by converting 13-of-17 on third-down opportunities, including 13 straight at one point. Out of halftime, the Flames drove 75 yards and scored as Salter found receiver Reese Smith for the first of three touchdown connections that trimmed the Pirates’ lead to 17-14. Salter and Smith hooked up again in the third quarter to take a 21-17 lead.
Their last connection allowed the Flames to regain the lead at 28-24 with 8:10 to play.
Still, ECU battled and drove into Liberty territory, but a Rahjai Harris fumble in the red zone with a little more than six minutes to play killed the drive and the Pirates never got close again.
“We’ve got to grow up and make the plays in crunch time,” Houston said.
Salter was 19-of-32 for 223 yards and four touchdowns with one interception. Running back Quinton Cooley, a Southern Nash High School grad, gained 105 yards on the ground and added a late touchdown that pushed the Liberty lead to 35-24.
ECU’s Garcia threw for 204 yards on 20-of-36 passing with one interception. All of ECU’s three touchdowns came on the ground as Harris, Garcia and Gunn found the end zone.
“We had some mistakes. Salter’s a good player,” Houston said. “The quarterback made a lot of plays tonight, and a lot of the third downs there in the second half were him improvising, scrambling around and taking off. We were playing a spy for him and we had leverage guys trying to keep him caged in, and we didn’t do a great job of executing.”
The Pirates begin American Athletic Conference play next week when they host UTSA at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
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