For the third consecutive game, those close to the ECU football program are left wondering if there’s such thing as an “ugly win.” This time, the No. 18 Pirates edged out a now 1-6 UConn team in front of a “blacked-out” Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, 31-21.

The, if anything, resilient ECU team used a 10-0 fourth quarter to slide past the visiting Huskies, who tied up the game at 21-apiece before the end of the third.

ECU’s now previous three opponents (SMU, USF and UConn) are a combined 4-16 on the season, but the Pirates have needed clutch fourth quarter performances in all three contests to prevail and keep their New Year’s Day bowl projection alive. The Pirates started this season on a roll, but the ECU resume grows more questionable with each South Carolina, Virginia Tech and North Carolina loss, and with each less-than-dominating ECU win over less-than-quality opponent.

But head coach Ruffin McNeill doesn’t pay attention to resumes and doesn’t believe that winning is ever easy.

“There is no such thing as a bad win,” said McNeill. “I will not fall into that and I will not be talked into that. I’ll stick to what I believe in. I can’t control what [the pollsters] pick. We just want to win by one [point] and get out of there.”

The Huskies may not have a respectable season resume, but they have the conference’s second ranked defense and they looked like it tonight against a potent ECU attack. UConn took away the running game early, forcing ECU quarterback Shane Carden to pass a season-high 54 times, and the Huskies pressured the gunslinger effectively. However the Pirates needed a clutch effort in the end from their senior leader and they got it, most notably on third and fourth downs, of which ECU was 8-for-16 and 3-for-5 on respectively. Carden finished the night 31-for-54 with 383 yards, two scores and an interception.

The Pirates likely fall to UConn on Thursday night if not for the effort of senior standout receiver and Carden’s safety net Justin Hardy, who hauled in a season-high 14 passes for 186 yards (another season-high) and a touchdown.

The former walk-on moved into second place on the NCAA career receptions list. At 327, he now only needs 23 catches to break Ryan Broyles’ record of 349. Heading into Thursday, he needed 5.2 catches per game with the assumption that ECU would clinch a bowl game, which the Pirates were able to do with the win. With his 12th double-digit receptions game Thursday, he brought that projected average down to a very manageable 3.83 per game in order to break the record.

The Pirates jumped out to an early 14-0 lead and looked to be rolling before an array of penalties, dropped passes, blown coverages and mental errors allowed UConn to score 14 unanswered. Those themes continued until roughly 10 minutes in the fourth quarter when the Pirates seemingly tightened up and closed out the game on a 10-0 run. The penalties were again particularly troublesome for a team that ranks near the bottom of the league in that category; they added 10 penalties for 100 yards to that lofty total. ECU may be going through growing pains adjusting to American Athletic Conference officiating.

“I’m still learning how to [adjust to the officiating],” said McNeill. “We’ve coached the same way with the same technique on offense for 15 years and [the players] are doing their jobs. The main thing we need to focus on is just moving on to the next play.”

The 6-1, 18th ranked Pirates continue to win, but they will likely need to tighten up in what appears to be an intriguing Philadelphia showdown against 4-2 Temple next Saturday.