2024 WEEK 1: LOUISIANA TECH (2-0) @ EAST CAROLINA (1-1)

It was a rainy day today inside Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium in Greenville North Carolina. ECU walked in a 3.5-point favorite but came out with a 10-point 16-6 loss.

The Pirates opened the scoring with a 22-yard field goal by freshman Bill Rowe with 7:53 left in the first quarter to give ECU the 3-0 lead.

The teams swapped field goals in the second quarter, a 39-yarder for freshman Scott Knotts for Louisiana Tech to tie the game 3-3. And a 27-yarder from Rowe with 16 seconds left in the half gives ECU the 6-3 halftime lead.

The Pirates would be shut out in the second half as the Bulldogs scored 13. They tied it at 6-6 with a 42-yard field goal by Knotts. Junior running back Francis Odom made it 13-6 with a six-yard run with 4:36 remaining in the game. Knotts added three more with 1:23 left in the game with a 22-yard field goal, his third of the game while going a perfect 3-for-3.

“There wasn’t much to be happy about with today’s game,” said ECU coach Sam Fisher. “We have to get better at putting points on the board. Our offense was moving the ball we just couldn’t finish the job” The Pirates led in the stats box with 417 total yards vs 362 but just weren’t able to convert that into points. Freshman quarterback Gregory Beasley went 23-of-47 for 251 yards with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions for ECU. Sophomore Christopher Mixon went 15-of-27 for 233 yards with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions.

Next week the East Carolina Pirates face the #21 seeded 1-0 Missippi State Bulldogs.

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