Pirates dominate UTEP in regular-season finale

GREENVILLE - East Carolina had been waiting all season for a day like Friday.

Brandon Simmons waited his whole career.

Simmons, a senior running back and former walk-on, scored four touchdowns and turned in the first 100-yard rushing performance of his career in the Pirates' 53-21 post-Thanksgiving manhandling of UTEP in the regular-season finale at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

Patrick Pinkney completed 17-of-23 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns as ECU churned out its highest point total of the season - by 23 points.

In a game that had no bearing on Conference USA's standings, the Pirates (8-4, 6-2 C-USA) scored on nine of their 10 possessions, matching the combined point total of their previous four games.

"When you get in a game like this and they say there's nothing to play for, tell the seniors that," said fourth-year ECU coach Skip Holtz, whose team compiled a season-high 475 total yards while holding the explosive Miners (5-7, 4-4) to 370.

"I think it speaks volumes for this football team and what they had to play for."

The Pirates, who entered the game with Conference USA's East Division title already in hand, will play in the league title game next Saturday at either Houston, Tulsa or Rice.

Simmons, who transferred from Elizabeth City State after his freshman year and walked on at ECU, carried 27 times for 111 yards and three touchdowns - all career highs - and caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Pinkney to close the scoring in an almost flawless first half.

Simmons' previous career rushing high was 86 yards, set against Houston in September.

"It was just a great thing to make plays when your number is called," said Simmons, wearing around his neck a purple lei that he said his girlfriend gave him.

Holtz praised Simmons for keeping a positive attitude after losing his starting job to Jonathan Williams earlier in the season. Williams was later suspended after a pair of arrests, opening the job for Simmons and sophomore Norman Whitley.

"He got his opportunity today," Holtz said, referring to Simmons, a Newton Grove native.

"I'd love to have him another year now."

The Pirates scored the first 24 points of the game by the 4:24 mark of the second quarter, holding C-USA's fourth-best scoring offense in check with an injury-riddled defense.

ECU opened the scoring with a methodical 11-play, 70-yard scoring drive on their first possession of the game, during which they converted three third downs. Simmons finished the drive with a 12-yard touchdown run off left tackle.

Three minutes later, after UTEP quarterback Trevor Vittatoe was picked off by Travis Simmons at the Miners 30, Pinkney hit wide-open wideout Darryl Freeney with a 32-yard touchdown pass on a post pattern to make it 14-0.

Just like that, the Pirates were off an running.

"It was a complete first half," Holtz said, comparing the half to the beginning of the Pirates' 24-3 win over West Virginia this season. "I don't know that it was a complete game, but it was definitely a complete first half."

Much of UTEP's offensive success came late in the second half, when Holtz installed enough reserves to send fans to the program vendor.

As evidence of ECU's domination, consider that the Pirates didn't punt. That hasn't happened since 1983.

"The offensive line played great," said Pinkney, referring to a unit that helped convert 12-of-18 third down situations, including 7-of-9 in the lopsided first half. "I didn't even hit the ground one time today, I don't think."

Things couldn't have gone much better for the Pirates in the first half. Even when they failed, they succeeded.

After coming up short on a third-and-5 during a late second-quarter drive, ECU converted a fourth-and-3 with a 22-yard Pinkney pass to Alex Taylor.

The play set up Pinkney's 7-yard touchdown pass to Simmons to make it 30-7 with 22 seconds left in the half.

The only blemish on ECU's opening 30 minutes followed Simmons' third touchdown, when kicker Ben Hartman yanked the extra point wide left. It was the first PAT miss of Hartman's career, snapping the junior's school-record streak of 77 straight.

Hartman redeemed himself with a booming 48-yard field goal in the third quarter, and then field goals from 38 and 33 yards in the fourth. He finished with four field goals.

"It's a bummer," Hartman, a junior, said of snapping the streak. "I was shooting to be perfect."

On Friday, his teammates nearly were. Holtz, whose team has lost starter after starter to injury, said he was especially proud of his seniors for turning around a program that had won three games in two seasons before he arrived.

"They chose to come to East Carolina when East Carolina was 1-10 or 2-9," Holtz said. "And look at what it's turned into. Blessed are those that believe and don't see."

 NOTES: With an announced crowd of 38,098, ECU finished the season averaging a school-record 42,016 fans per game. ... Freeney caught five passes for 106 yards and a touchdown ... Pirates receiver Alex Taylor returned an onside kick 40 yards for a touchdown with 44 seconds left in the game.