GREENVILLE -- Rice was the perfect Homecoming guest for East Carolina. For one October afternoon, the hapless Owls made the Pirates look like kings.
Senior receiver Dwayne Harris scored three touchdowns, including a 92-yard kickoff return, to lead ECU to an easy 49-13 win over the winless Owls at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday.
East Carolina will have Patrick Pinkney for another season. The senior quarterback from Durham was granted a sixth season of eligibility by the NCAA on Friday.
Pinkney led ECU to the Conference USA title and a 9-5 record in 2008. He passed for 2,675 yards and 13 touchdowns. Pinkney missed the entire 2005 season due to a shoulder injury, which is how he was able to get the sixth season.
AP photo
NEW ORLEANS — For an unsettling time Saturday, Patrick Pinkney was more perplexed than proficient, a quarterback seemingly lost in the pocket.
Also for a long time, East Carolina’s No. 14 ranked football team looked as if it might wind up lost in the vastness of the Louisiana Superdome.
But as good quarterbacks do and as good teams do, Pinkney and the Pirates pulled it together at the end to overcome tenacious Tulane, 28-24, and move their record to 3-0.
