East Carolina came into the game off the heels of a heartbreaking loss to NC State. Their opponents the Monarchs of Old Dominion were riding high off a power five win over Virginia Tech. The Pirate defense would have a boom or bust day as they only allowed 3 touchdowns but the three scoring drives would combine for just 11 plays and 225 yards. The Pirate defense would only allow 61 yards on the other drives combined. The offense would look more consistent averaging 38 yards per drive and finding a way to score on 7 of 14 drives.
The Pirates got it going early by driving 70 yards in 17 plays. However, the drive stalled out at the five and the Pirates had to settle for a 22-yard field goal by Owen Daffer to give the Pirates a 3-0 lead. On their next drive the Pirates did one better as Holton Ahlers hit Ryan Jones for a 12-yard touchdown. The PAT was blocked by Jason Henderson and the Pirates took a 9-0 lead. The Monarchs answered in just two plays and 51 seconds as Hayden Wolff hit Ali Jennings III for a 16-yard touchdown.
Late in the first half the Pirates extended the lead when Keaton Mitchell ran in a 1-yard touchdown to give the Pirates a 16-7 lead. The Pirates took that lead into the half in big part to a shutdown run defense that held the Monarchs to negative 17 rushing yards.
To open the 2nd half the Monarchs went 75 yards in 5 plays to frim the Pirate lead to two, thanks to another Wolff to Jennings touchdown. A few drives later Ahlers hit running back Rahjai Harris with a 3 yard shovel pass for the touchdown and yet again the PAT was blocked. This gave the Pirates a 22-14 lead. On the next drive the Pirates forced the games first turnover when Julius Wood picked off a Wolff pass.
Early in the 4th quarter the Pirates extended the lead when Keaton Mitchell went 81-yards for the score to give the Pirates a 29-14 lead. It was the first time in 11 games that Mitchell had a run of over 80 yards. The Pirate defense kept the momentum by forcing a fumble on the next drive and one play later Harris ran it in from 15 yards out and the Pirate lead grew to 36-14. Daffer later added a 31-yard kick, and four plays later Wolff hit Jennings for a 3rd touchdown to make it a 39-21 game with 4:47 left. The Monarchs kicked an unsuccessful onside kick, but the Pirates only bled 1:46 off the clock and ODU got the ball back wit 3:01 remaining. The Pirate Defense got the ball back and the offense ran out the rest of the clock for a 39-21 victory.
Overall a successful day for East Carolina who will head into their contest with Campbell next week with a 1-1 record.