What a way to open the season
By Brian Bailey
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday was one of the longest days of work that I can remember.
I certainly use the term “work” loosely. Watching a college football game certainly isn’t hard work. Actually, the trip to Charlotte was an absolute blast. The stadium was rocking when the teams were first introduced. Virginia Tech went first. The Hokies came out to their traditional “Enter Sandman” by Metallica. It was loud for sure. The Pirates followed and you could tell that both teams were tired of summer camp and looking forward to playing a game.
The game certainly wasn’t a gem. The Pirates were giving out gifts like it was Christmas morning early. The fumbled lateral was bad enough, but the Pirates followed that up with a fumble on the ensuing kick-off. Later, the Pirates were trying to tie the game with an extra point, when Tech blocked the thing and scored two points on their own with the return. It was Rocky Mount’s own Stephan Virgil, who was once recruited by ECU, that scored on the lateral and on the extra point return. That botched PAT turned a 14-14 game into a 16-13 Pirate deficit.
East Carolina would trail 22-13 deep into the fourth quarter. That’s when the magic began. Give Patrick Pinkney plenty of credit for both the way he played and the leadership he displayed. Pinkney drove the Pirates down and then scored the touchdown to set up the game-winning score.
It was 22-20 when the Pirate defense held to set up the winning play. Forget “Beamer Ball”. This time the Pirates beat Beamer at his own game.
T.J. Lee broke through, blocked the punt, and then hustled to the end zone for the game-winner. The Pirate Nation was beside itself in Charlotte.
What a way to open the season! I’ve seen plenty of Pirate football through my 24 years, but that was just about as good as it gets. We left at 5:30 AM, covered the game, arrived back in Greenville at 10:15pm and still anchored the 11pm sportscast. Photographer Kevin O’Brien did a great job in helping me. It was a long but most rewarding day. I’ve always said that all of Eastern Carolina is happy when the Pirates win. If you want to get a bank loan, this might be the week to do it, because everybody is in a good mood.
It might get even better. A win this week over 8th ranked West Virginia should vault the Pirates into the Top 25.
It should be the hottest ticket in years!
COMMENTS
I don’t know if I have the right section. I would like to say that the police and other officers have every right to use whatever force they need to. The people wouldn’t listen so they deserve what they get. The officers were only doing their jobs. As for the news reporters, they s
eem to enjoy just running things like this in the ground. It’ll be news all week now. I feel sorry for the law enforcement folks in any capacity they are in due to this type of reporting.
Shorty