GREENVILLE — After falling behind Virginia Tech (2-2) 14-0 in the first eight minutes of the game Saturday afternoon, the East Carolina football team (2-2, 0-1 American Athletic Conference) easily could have folded. But Blake Kemp and the Pirate defense had different plans.

Things started slow for the ECU offense, which had two turnovers on its first two possessions with a Kemp interception and fumble.

The Hokies were handed golden field position with the two early turnovers and only had to move the ball 50 yards to put up 14 points. When the turnovers stopped, the ECU defense had more room to take risks and step up on Virginia Tech quarterback Brenden Motley. He rushed for 20 of the Hokies’ 28 yards and finished the game with 85 yards.

“(Stopping Motley) was very important, we knew he was a running quarterback coming in,” said Bigger after the win. “We saw in film with him against Perdue that sometimes he likes to take off running. We made sure early that he knew he couldn’t do that so we popped him a few times and got him rattled.”

Kemp marched the Pirates down the field with three complete passes on three attempts for 52 yards in the first drive after falling behind 14-0. At the end of the drive, he found a hole on a read option from three yards out to make it a one possession game with 4:33 left in the first quarter.

“I was calmed down really,” said Kemp of the two early turnovers. “After those two series, we had more of a beat on what they were doing, because it was a little different from what we had anticipated.”

Calm he was as Kemp led another scoring drive after a defensive stop that got the Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium sellout crowd rocking. Kemp and the Pirate offense drove again with an eight-play, 60-yard scoring drive that ended with an 11-yard fade touchdown pass to sophomore Trevon Brown.

Brown was making his season debut, but was overshadowed by another Pirate taking his first snaps at Bagwell Field. James Summers had played on the road, but made his first appearance at home last night in resounding fashion.

Summers, a highly touted high school recruit took the long road to ECU through junior college. He found himself in the middle of an important game for his new team and took over.

In his first drive, Summers carried the ball four times and picked up 34 yards, punctuated by a five-yard touchdown run that put ECU in the lead, 21-14. Summers didn’t let them look back from there, though he was quick to deflect the attention.

“Blake Kemp opened it up for me and they haven’t seen a rushing quarterback, obviously,” said Summers calmly. “When I came in I thought I could use that to my advantage, and I guess I did.”

In his second scoring drive, to cap off a 28-point scoring streak for ECU, Summers used his arm more than his legs. He found Isaiah Jones twice in open field for the junior’s only two receptions of the game. The first catch was a 29-yard strike to put ECU on the Tech 24-yard line; the second, a 26-yard diving touchdown catch by Jones, the likes of which he has never made.

“That’s usually (older brother) Caleb (Jones) making those catches,” said Jones with a laugh. “It’s something you kind of dream about, messing around in practice or in the backyard. But it actually do it, it’s pretty amazing.”

The final act of Summers’ first appearance at Dowdy-Ficklen was the most impressive of the bunch.

Less than three minutes away from the Hokies making it a one-score game again, Summers put away the final nail with a mammoth of a run.

Summers took the ball himself and ran up the middle, broke through the offensive line, spun away from defensive back Chuck Clark before getting hung up on defensive lineman Ken Ekanem but a swift stiff arm did the trick. From there Summers dashed the rest of the 41 yards necessary for a touchdown. The score put ECU on top, 35-21.

“If you don’t take me down, I’ll keep moving,” said Summers after the win. “Keep your feet moving, they teach you that in rec league. That’s all that happened on that play.”

Tech got the ball back with 58 seconds left and with thoughts of Hail Mary losses still fresh scars in players’ minds, they protected the end zone and made Motley’s last-itch effort fall short of a comeback victory.

ECU may have a quarterback situation on its hands now, but the prevailing image of this week is Summers bowling over defenders to the tune of 169 yards and two rushing touchdowns and a fifth-straight win over an Atlantic Coast Conference team.