Weather postpones ECU opener until Sunday
East Carolina’s long-awaited 2018 opener to put last year’s season behind it will have to wait another day.
After three hours and 20 minutes or rain delays Saturday night, ECU announced the Pirates and North Carolina A&T will meet at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The game was to begin at 6 p.m. Saturday, but the scheduled start was delayed and the stadium emptied due to the threat of severe weather approaching. The players returned to their locker rooms and fans either exited under the stadium or waited under the stands.
Although there was no rain, safety precautions require a 30-minute wait after any sighting of lightning. A new start was scheduled for 7:47 p.m., with both teams warming up again for 20 minutes.
But three minutes before kickoff, lightning was sighted. The players returned to their locker rooms and the fans were again asked to exit the stadium seating. Once a heavy downpour hit the stadium, the game was postponed.
ECU head coach Scottie Montgomery and his players have been optimistic in fall camp about putting behind them back-to-back 3-9 seasons in Montgomery’s first two years.
Reid Herring, a Millbrook High alum, has been named the starter as a redshirt sophomore. He is one 13 starters and 29 players on the depth chart’s two-deep from Montgomery’s first three recruiting classes.
N.C. A&T (1-0), a preseason No. 14 in the Football Championship Subdivision, opened the season a week ago with a 20-17 upset over No. 6 Jacksonville State in the Guardian FCS Kickoff in Montgomery, Ala.
Earlier in the week Montgomery described A&T having already played a game a mixed bag. The Aggies got out their opening-day jitters, but the Pirates have seen them on film.
“For us, we have to worry about the pregame jitters and all of those things,” he said. “We have had a lot of changes on offense, on defense and on special teams, which no one has seen at this point of time besides our kids, our coaches and some of our fans.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2018 at 9:46 PM.