By By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — On Military Appreciation Day the Pirates extended a little too much hospitality to Navy as they handed the ball over four times in the third quarter en route to being blown out by the Midshipmen 76-35 on Saturday.
Led by quarterback Ricky Dobbs and fullback Alexander Teich, Navy (6-3) rushed for a whopping 521 yards on 62 attempts behind a devastating triple-option attack that bullied the Pirates’ defense all game long and scored the most points ever at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
Dobbs directed the option attack with surgical precision as he ran for 100 yards on 17 carries and scored once en route to becoming the school’s all-time touchdown leader with 45.
Dobbs also hit on six of his eight pass attempts for 75 yards and two touchdowns. The second touchdown pass was the quarterback’s ninth of the season, the most by Navy signal-caller since 1997.
Teich paced the high-octane ground game as he led all rushers with 157 yards on only 14 carries and reached the end zone once in the romp.
East Carolina (5-4) battled against Navy’s ground attack with wafer-thin depth at the defensive line. Entering Saturday’s game the team was missing freshman defensive end, and sack leader, Justin Dixon who suffered a knee injury during the fifth game of the season. The team was also missing sophomore standout defensive tackle Michael Brooks (knee) and sophomore DE Marke Powell (arm), both of whom sustained injuries during last week’s 49-35 loss to UCF.
The rash of injuries left East Carolina coach Ruffin McNeill with a young, three-man rotation at defensive end and forced him to remove the red shirt off of freshman defensive lineman Lee Pegues, a move McNeill said earlier in the week he did not want to make.
“We had to do whatever we could to stay in the game,” McNeill said. “The kids kept fighting, but Navy has a good football team and they did a good job. My hat is off to them.”
The Pirates moved the ball well on offense as they amassed 567 yards of total offense, but three straight turnovers on their first three possessions in the third quarter took away any hope the team had of clinching bowl eligibility on Saturday.
East Carolina quarterback Dominique Davis was 43-of-65 for 413 yards and recorded five touchdown passes, while Lance Lewis paced the wideouts with nine catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns. Jonathan Williams ran for 94 yards on 12 carries and caught six passes for 75 yards, but had two costly fumbles in the third quarter.
Trailing only 28-21 at the start of the second half, ECU received the ball at the start of the third quarter but quickly gave it back as Williams fumbled it away on the team’s second play of the half.
The turnover led to a career-long 38-yard field goal by Jon Teague to extend Navy’s lead to 31-21.
On the next possession Williams fumbled again, only this time it led to a Dobbs 29-yard pass to Aaron Santiago to take a 38-21 advantage.
After the game, McNeill said his senior running back has been battling an undisclosed injury all week long.
“He was playing hurt all game but he fought hard,” McNeill said. “He has a very painful injury that I can’t talk about, but he had not faced contact all week.”
The Pirates’ errors continued on the next drive as Davis caught his own batted pass and then coughed it up for the team’s third straight turnover.
The Midshipmen capitalized again as slot back Gee Gee Greene galloped for a 21-yard TD run to up the lead to 45-21.
Overall, East Carolina turned the ball over on four of its five third-quarter possessions as it was out-scored by Navy 27-7 heading into the fourth quarter where the blowout continued.
Navy’s Kriss Procter and Vince Murray led the team with two scores each.
Dwayne Harris, who had to miss some time due to a lower back contusion sustained in the first half, came back in the game and tied Lewis with a team-best two touchdowns.