As it was, this band of Scotsmen rode rough-shod over a scurvy gang of Pirates, robbing them of their own plunder and driving them back into the inhospitable sand spits of the Carolina shore.

McHargue got things going with a couple of key, 13-yard pass completions to Sam McGuffie and Vance McDonald. Once nearing the red zone, the offense was commandeered by Eddington, who immediately ripped runs of 14 and nine yards, scoring from two yards out a couple of plays later.. 

ECU replied with a 47-yard touchdown pass from Dominique Davis to Lance Lewis, but the resulting 7-7 tie was the last sniff the Pirates had of the Owls for the remainder of the day.

The Owls roared right back with an 81-yard drive that took only six plays, although 44 of those yards were covered by Sam McGuffie in a broken field run down the home sideline that carried to the ECU four yard line.

The next play, T-Mac hit Vance McDonald on an over-the-shoulder catch in the corner of the end zone, and the Owls were ahead to stay.

Next, it was the turn of the much-maligned Rice defense to make a stattement. After allowing a single first down, Owl defenders shut down the ECU offensive series, Chris Jones nailing Lance Lewis for a no-gain completion, with the next two passes falling incomplete.

Rice took over possession at their own 36, and immediately the scoring machine got cranked up again. Big plays were made by Vance McDonald, who hauled in a 39-yard reception from Taylor McHargue, and T-Mac himself, who romped an additional 21 yards to the ECU 3.

Two plays later, Jeremy Eddington had his second TD of the day, plunging over from a yard out.

ECU managed to put together a drive on their next possession, and looked to be on the edge of getting back into the game, facing second and ten at the Rice 13. But that's when Travis Bradshaw stepped in front of a Dominique Davis pass to intercept at the three yard line, getting the ball out to the Rice 6.

Pay dirt was 94 yards away, but then lightning struck. After Charles Ross got six to the Rice 12, Jeremy Eddington took the inside handoff and burst through the line.

"In practice we'd been running the play and it had been opening up," Jeremy recounted. "And I was like, 'If we run that play in the game, I'm gong to score' -- and we ran it just like in practice."

And he did score, racing the entire 88-yard distance untouched.

That made it 27-7, as the extra point attempt was blocked, but ECU still had a couple of tricks up its sleeve -- literally. The Pirates scored twice to narrow the gap, first on a trick play involving the old handoff and pitch-back to the quarterback, wherein David hit a wide-open Dwayne Harris for 46 yards and the score.

ECU scored again after converting a 48-yard completion from Davis to Lewis on fourth and three from the ECU 46. One play later, Davis found Justin Jones open in the end zone for six more.

That brought the score to 34-21, Rice, for in between the Owls added another TD of their own, completing a six-play, 80-yard drive on a picture-pretty pass from T-Mac to Pierre Beasley for 30 yards and the touchdown

The Owls appeared to be driving for another touchdown as the second quarter clock ticked down. After Kyle Martens punted 53 yards to the ECU six-inch line, the Owl defense three-and-outed the Pirates, so that after a Ben Ryan 43-yard punt, Rice set up shop at the Pirate 49 with 2:59 left in the half.

So the feeling that wafted through the stands was along lines of, "OK, we may score, we may not -- but at least we'll be going into the halftime locker room with a two touchdown lead."

That optimism was enhanced when Sam McGuffie ripped off a 19-yard run the first play from scrimmage. With first and ten at the ECU 30, it was time to send in the Owlcat package and grind toward the end zone while running down the clock.

But on third and five from the ECU 25, J-Edd finally made a freshman mistake, mishandling a snap, which was picked off in mid-air by the Pirates' Matt Milner, who raced as far as the Rice 19 before Mr. Eddington himself caught up with him.

The Pirates went on to score with 33 seconds left in the half on a Jon Williams two-yard plunge. That made it 34-28 Rice at halftime, and when one took stock of the situation, the result was frustrating.

For the Owls had moved the ball virtually at will the entire first half, scoring on drives of 74, 81, 64, 94 and 80 yards. But ECU had managed to stay in the chase on, what, two long bombs, a trick play, and a fumble return on a bobbled snap. Was this game headed toward a thoroughly disgusting ending, despite Rice's offensive tour de force?

The Owls answered that question with a resounding "no," as they took the second half kickoff and picked up right where they'd left off. They once again pounded the ball on the ground, getting pickups of 10 and 30 yards from McHargue, before Sam McGuffie slammed it in from 17 yards out.

“I thought that was paramount to us winning this football game," Rice head coach David Bailiff said, "the way we responded after that mistake."

Somehow that statement drive indeed quieted any sideline apprehension, and from there on the Owls simply put it on cruise control.

ECU did get three points their next possession, on a 31-yard Mike Barbour field goal. But that was all the scoring they'd do on the day, until garbage time, while the Owls racked up three more TDs to double up the score at 62-31 with 8:49 left in the game.

The first of those three touchdowns came on a sweet, 64-yard pass and run from T-Mac to Sam on third and ten from the Rice 36.

Next possession, the Pirates were despearate enough to go for it on fourth and one from their own 32, but the center of the Rice defense led by John Gioffre shut down Davis on a quarterback sneak,  so the ball belonged to the Owls on downs.

Ironically, the Owls then proceeded to cover the 32 yards to paydirt on their longest drive, play wise, of the day. For it took the Flock 10 snaps to go that distance, Jeremy Eddington getting the last yard on fourth and goal from the one.

Clearly, the mix of the conventional spread attack with the Eddington-led Wildcat worked brilliantly against an admittedly suspect ECU defense, keeping it off balance the entire afternoon.

"The unique thing with Jeremy is that it is like you have to prepare for two offenses.," Coach Bailiff pointed out. "You're running the wildcat with Jeremy and he threw the ball. It wasn't great but it keeps them off balance. Then you put McHargue in who can do all that and throw the football. It presents a challenge with all the different play variations that we can run. It has worked well for us."

It was then reserve safety Paul Porras' time to shine, as he made a clean pick of a Dominique Davis pass and returned it 17 yards to midfield, simply refusing to to be tackled until several Pirates managed to corral him.

When Kyle Martens came in to attempt only his second punt of the day (by the way, that makes it a grand total of three punts in the last two games for the Owls), it brushed the hip pad of an ECU deep man, and was alertly picked up by, who else, Paul Porras.

After a video review revealed the touch, Rice was awarded the ball at the ECU 14 yard line, where Sam McGuffie slammed it down the middle to the one-foot line, and Taylor McHargue then kept for the score.