UNC Football: ECU dominates second half to beat Tar Heels

The UNC Football program can’t get on track as they suffer their second loss in as many weeks on the road Saturday

Saturday’s game between North Carolina and East Carolina in Greenville was truly a tale of two halves. After the Tar Heels jumped out to a 3-0 lead with a field goal on their opening drive, it looked as if things were going to be different this week.

But they weren’t.

The Pirates answered the Tar Heels field goal with an impressive 8-play, 84-yard drive that was capped off by a 6-yard Anthony Scott touchdown run to give ECU the early 7-3 lead. From there, you could just tell it was going to be one of those days for the Tar Heels, again.

UNC managed to score an another field goal from Freeman Jones in the first quarter to trail 7-6 and then even took a brief lead after Jordon Brown found the end zone from 12-yards out early in the second quarter.

But the 13-7 lead would be short lived as the Pirates marched right down the field again for another touchdown. That drive featured a roughing the passer call on UNC after ECU quarterback Reid Herring  threw the ball away out of bounds on 3rd and 22. Instead of UNC’s defense giving the ball back to the offense with the lead, it gave the Pirates another chance and they took advantage of that.

The Tar Heels would answer with another field goal from Freeman Jones to make it 16-14 and that would be their last lead of the game.

ECU went 86 yards on 7 plays just before the half to take a 21-16 lead when Reid Herring found Trevon Brown for a 22-yard touchdown pass and the Pirates never looked back. The drive was aided by a pass interference call by UNC’s secondary, keeping it alive for the Pirates and they took full advantage.

UNC managed to get another field goal from Jones as time expired in the first half and they went into the locker room trailing 19-21.

The second half was totally dominated by ECU and it wasn’t pretty.

ECU shutout the Tar Heels in the second half and dominated in every aspect of the game scoring 20-unanswered points to put it away and win 41-19. This was ECU’s first win of the season and it came just a week after they fell to North Carolina A&T.  It also marks the third-straight win for the Pirates over UNC in the series.

For the Tar Heels, they drop to 0-2 on the season and put together another uninspiring performance leaving many wondering how bad of a season this can get.

After a big let down against Cal, the Tar Heels entered this game as 16 point favorites and ended up getting blown out. It comes a week before UNC will host nationally-ranked UCF in Chapel Hill for the home opener. But if the first two weeks are any indication of how Week 3 will go, then it’s likely to get ugly for the Tar Heels.

Quarterback Nathan Elliott finished the game 22-of-38 for 219 yards with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions. Freshman Cade Fortin entered the game late and went 3-of-6 for 15 yards and had a 17-yard run.

UNC running back Antonio Williams was ejected from the game in the first half after he was flagged for targeting on a block. Williams had 96 yards rushing on 6 carries before he had to exit the game.