Late field goal gives ECU football the edge in win over ODU
A late field goal helped ECU come out on the good end of a neck-and-neck battle with Old Dominion on Saturday.
After nearly identical production from the Pirates and Monarchs for three quarters, a 38-yard field goal by Jake Verity with 1:16 to play lifted ECU to a 37-35 victory.
Old Dominion (1-4, 0-2 CUSA) was coming off its only win of the season, an unlikely upset of then-No. 13 Virginia Tech. ECU improved to 2-2 ahead of its American Athletic Conference opener Saturday at Temple.
“This is probably our most gratifying win as a program,” ECU coach Scottie Montgomery said, ECU Sports Information reported. “This was a big-time fourth-quarter victory. Defensively, we bent in a lot of situations, but we didn’t break.”
ECU’s Reid Herring (24-42-309) threw two of his three touchdowns in the first half – 46 yards to Trevon Brown (4-79) and 12 yards to Deondre Farrier. ECU added a pair of rushing touchdowns, a 4-yarder by Anthony Scott and a 49-yard keeper by freshman quarterback Holton Ahlers.
Herring found Tahj Deans for a 4-yard score with 5:22 left in the game to pull the Pirates with a point, 35-34, but ODU blocked Verity’s extra point attempt.
Montgomery caught some heat for opting to punt in a fourth-and-1 situation on the ECU 28 yard line with 3:17 remaining.
“As a head coach, you can’t be afraid to be booed,” he said, according to the ECU report. “You have to be able to stick to the play, and with three timeouts there, I knew we had time. There’s a lot that you can do with stopping the clock. Our defense played really good most of the game, and I wanted to put it back in their hands.”
The defense finished with nine sacks that moved the Monarchs back 63 yards, including three credited to Nate Harvey and two by Kendal Futrell.
Blake LaRussa completed 21 of 36 attempts for 250 yards and two touchdowns for ODU.
His 49-yard scoring pass to Isaiah Harper gave the Monarchs their first lead of the game at the 9:18 mark in the fourth.
This story was originally published September 30, 2018 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Late field goal gives ECU football the edge in win over ODU."