University of Louisville
East Carolina
No. 19 Louisville Tops East Carolina, 39-34
November 15, 2001 | Football
Nov 15, 2001
By DAVID DROSCHAK
AP Sports Writer
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) - Louisville is moving into some uncharted territory as a football program.
Dave Ragone threw for 292 yards and three touchdowns as the 19th-ranked Cardinals clinched at least a share of their second straight Conference USA title with a 39-34 victory over East Carolina on Thursday night.
The Cardinals (10-1, 6-0 C-USA) spotted East Carolina (6-4, 5-1) a 14-0 lead, but rallied with a 19-point third quarter to win their seventh straight to lock up a repeat trip to the Liberty Bowl to play the winner of the Mountain West Conference.
The team accepted the bid in the locker room and then sang "Happy Birthday" to coach John L. Smith, who turned 53 Thursday.
"Repeating is much harder because we wore the target all year long," Smith said. "We wore it with pride and we talked to our kids about defending it.
"We told them you better walk around and you better start defending it the day we got home after the Liberty Bowl. They did that and it's tough to do that."
Ragone, who missed the second half of last year's loss to East Carolina with a shoulder injury, had scoring passes of 17, 11 and 4 yards as Louisville secured its second 10-win season in 83 years of football.
The Cardinals went 10-1-1 in 1990 under Howard Schnellenberger.
Louisville will win the conference title outright with a victory over Texas Christian next Friday.
"This could be the greatest team in the history of the university if you guys put your mind to it," Smith told the team in the locker room.
The Pirates had been outscored 50-10 in the second half of their last two wins, but it caught up with them this time as the team's four-game winning streak was snapped when Louisville scored 29 straight points.
"That was echoed in the locker room," Ragone said. "We were the second half team. We've been the second half team in this conference the last two years and we were going to come out and prove it."
East Carolina made it close with two TDs in the final 8:20 and ended the game at the Louisville 45.
Zak Parker's 91-yard kickoff return to start the second half pulled Louisville to 21-19 and an interception by Ronnie Gallishaw on a flea-flicker by East Carolina set up Ragone's go-ahead 11-yard scoring pass to Deion Branch with 5:37 left in the third.
"It got fired up a little bit because immediately we knew we were back in it," Smith said of sideline after the kickoff return. "It was huge. It was like, `OK, this is what we're supposed to do. Let's get going."'
For the Pirates, it signaled trouble.
"That, to me, was a big, big play," East Carolina coach Steve Logan said. "It was a surprise touchdown that really knocked us back on our heels."
A fumble by Leonard Henry, the nation's No. 3 rusher, deep in East Carolina territory set up T.J. Patterson's 8-yard scoring run 3 minutes later.
Ragone then sealed it with a 58-yard pass to Branch that set up his short scoring play to Branch 3 minutes into the fourth. Branch finished with 10 catches for 161 yards.
The Pirates stunned the nation's seventh-best scoring defense with two touchdowns in a span of 23 seconds less than 4 minutes in.
David Garrard drove East Carolina 80 yards on the game's opening possession, hitting former QB Richard Alston on a 50-yard pass play to set up the first of two Henry scores.
Ragone's first pass was then intercepted by Greg LeFever at the Louisville 29 and returned to the 13. Henry took 6 seconds to burst around left end for a 14-0 lead.
"There were a lot of chins dragging on the ground real quick," Smith said.
Ragone then settled in, hitting tight end Ronnie Ghent on 17-yard scoring pass late in the first quarter and Nathan Smith added field goals of 22 and 26 yards.
East Carolina's third touchdown midway through the second quarter on a trick play as wide receiver Damarcus Fox raced 34 yards on what amounted to a fake "fumblerooskie" play.
