App State runs away from ECU in second half, Pirates fall to 0-3

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - The ECU football team has fallen to 0-3 after a great start, a tough second half, and a bunch of turnovers did in the Pirates against a Mountaineers 43-28.

“You’ve got to look at the things that we did well and build on that,” says ECU head football coach Mike Houston, “We’ve got to continue to correct the things that we did. They kept us from winning the ball game.”

Alex Flinn started for the Pirates at quarterback. He threw for 158 yards, but had three interceptions in the game, and took three sacks.

“Turnovers it’s just you gotta work on looking the safety off, trying not to force things, try not to make a big play unless they give it to you,” says ECU quarterback Alex Flinn.

“I thought he was the most prepared to handle what I knew this was going to be out there,” says Coach Houston, “I thought he came out and did a great job in the first half. He made some really nice throws had some good runs was not able to be as consistent in the second half, that’s what got us.”

ECUs defense had two touchdowns in the game, a scoop and score by Shavon Revel and a huge pix six by Antoine Jackson help him stay in the lead into the third quarter.

“Those are huge you don’t get them very often,” coach Houston said.

But in the third and into the fourth quarter things got away from them. Joey Aguilar ran and threw a touchdown as App State pulled away to the 43 to 28 win.

“Our inability to stop the run game in the second half, and you know the play action passes, we have to be better than that,” said Houston.

There were a couple cool moments for running backs in the game, Wallace Rose Hill star, Kanye Roberts found the end zone for App State in the first half. Rajai Harris got his first touchdowns of the season coming off his ACL surgery two touchdowns in the game for Harris.

“It felt good man. It felt good. I’ve been through the whole ACL deal,” says Harris, “Walking into the end zone definitely felt good but it would’ve felt better if we would’ve won.”

0-3 is not where the Pirates want to be but it’s where they stand through three games.

“The real keys right now is keeping everybody positive and keeping everybody working towards improvement,” says Houston.

“We got a long season we got a long season, so we just got to keep on stacking days and keep trying to get better. We got to keep putting confidence in to your players, and will make plays,” says Harris, “There are plenty more games, plenty more weeks we will make plays.”

The only way to get this thing done is sticking together and they will have to do that in a hurry to get it right. They have Gardner Webb, one of the better FCS teams in the nation coming to town next weekend.