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Published Oct 28, 2023
UTSA sinks East Carolina
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Stephen Whitaker  •  BirdsUp
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UTSA improves to 4-0 in conference play with 41-27 win over East Carolina Saturday afternoon

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UTSA continued its fast start to life in the American on Saturday afternoon with a 41-27 win over East Carolina in the Alamodome. The win improved the Roadrunners to 5-3 overall and 4-0 in conference. East Carolina fell to 1-7 overall and 0-4 in conference.

The Roadrunners did it with big plays on offense and a defense that limited East Carolina for much of the afternoon. The Pirates only scored two touchdowns on offense and one of those came with 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter when UTSA had the game well in hand.

"Hard-fought win by our kids," UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor said. "Our defense got off to a rough start early, but hard-fought win by our kids throwing the ball down the field, made some good adjustments."

There were areas for improvement for the Roadrunners. East Carolina got their only lead of the afternoon, 17-14, with 1:11 left in the first quarter when Dontavius Nash intercepted a Frank Harris pass and returned it 36 yards for a touchdown.

The Roadrunners also had six penalties for 80 yards compared to five penalties for 68 yards for East Carolina.

UTSA was able to get a turnover on defense in the second half when Elliott Davison intercepted an Alex Flinn pass in the end zone. It gave the Roadrunners defense a turnover in four straight games

"We had great pressure up front. The D-line was going crazy all night," Davison said. "We were in man coverage and I saw the ball in the air and tried to attack it."

On the whole it was a positive day for the Roadrunners in the annual homecoming game. Harris threw for 395 yards and four touchdowns while completing 20 of his 34 pass attempts. His top target in terms of yards was Joshua Cephus who had 183 yards on four catches. Cephus got 124 of his yards after catching the ball.

Harris and Cephus connected for a school record 84-yard touchdown pass with 12:42 left in the second quarter to give UTSA a 24-17 lead. The Roadrunners never gave the lead up after that. Cephus also went over the 3,000 yard mark for his career, joining former Roadrunner Zakhari Franklin in that club

"He puts all the work in throughout the whole week. I have the utmost trust in him. He's proven that he deserves that," Harris said of Cephus. "Throughout the whole week he puts a lot of work in. He's a hard worker. He's a great teammate. Then on Saturdays he goes out there and proves it."

The Roadrunner offense racked up a season high 515 yards of total offense. It was the first time UTSA got 500 yards of offense this season. The Roadrunners had four games with over 500 yards of offense last season, the last being the Conference USA championship game win over North Texas.

East Carolina limited the Roadrunners to 120 yards rushing. Rocko Griffin got more than half of those yards on a 69-yard run near the end of the first quarter that set the Roadrunners up at the ECU 6. That drive finished with a Chase Allen field goal that tied the score at 17-17 with 14:52 left in the second quarter.

Griffin finished the day as the Roadrunners leading rusher with five carries for 80 yards.

"They're really good on defense. They're not going to let you run the football," Traylor said. "They're just not going to let you do it. They're going to make you throw the football to beat them."

UTSA's defense limited East Carolina's offense to 366 yards on Saturday afternoon. That was the fifth fewest yards allowed by the Roadrunner defense this season. The Pirates had 225 yards passing and 141 yards rushing.

The Roadrunner defense got five sacks on the Pirates quarterback. It was the third game in a row that the Roadrunner defense got at least five sacks in a game and the fourth time in the first eight games this season.

Trey Moore led the Roadrunners with three sacks to move his season total to 12. Moore's second sack of the afternoon moved him past Clarence Hicks 2021 total for the most sacks by a Roadrunner in a single season. Moore has at least four more games to add to his sack total this season.

"It means a lot. Just all the work I've put in, seeing it come to fruition," Moore said of reaching the record. "I just give all glory to God, but yeah, it means a lot."

UTSA keeps rolling along but the journey isn't finished

The win over East Carolina gave the Roadrunners their fifth straight homecoming game. UTSA has not lost a homecoming game since 2018 when Louisiana Tech rolled in and stomped the Roadrunners 31-3. UTSA had played Rice, UTEP and North Texas in each of the last four homecomings so this was UTSA's first game against a non-Texas school on homecoming since that Louisiana Tech loss in 2018.

UTSA's win over East Carolina was the Roadrunners first win against a non-Texas team on homecoming since a win over Florida International in 2014. The Roadrunners improved to 9-4 all-time in homecoming games and 4-3 against non-Texas teams.

The good vibes for the Roadrunners carry beyond the homecoming stats.

For the third straight season the Roadrunners are 4-0 to start the conference season. It is also the third straight season the Roadrunners have gone undefeated in October.

UTSA has won 11 straight games in the month of October. That streak is safe until 2024 as the calendar turns to November.

The Roadrunners have also won 12 straight regular season conference games and 14 straight games against conference opponents counting the two conference championship wins in 2021 and 2022.

"We're not really satisfied. We've got to watch the film, get better from it, and get ready for next week," Harris said. "I think we're just playing great football from the offensive end and defensive end and special teams as a whole. I just think we just keep doing our jobs, keep doing our 1/11 and just playing our style of football, I think we'll be fine."

Now the Roadrunners head into November looking to make it two undefeated Novembers in a row and three undefeated Novembers in four years under Traylor. UTSA carries a four-game winning streak in the month of November from last season and are 10-1 in the 11th month of the year under Traylor. The only November loss for the Roadrunners came two years ago on Thanksgiving weekend at North Texas.

"This is where the real games start. That's why November, games that remember," Traylor said. "You never remember those games in September and October. Every game we talk about in this room right now, it was somebody in November."

Next week the Roadrunners will put their conference winning streak on the line when they travel to a place where they'd like to snap a streak of a different sort.

UTSA is headed up north to Denton where they have lost four straight trips since winning the inaugural contest between the two teams in 2013. The four losses in a row at Denton have either been blowouts or close losses. The Roadrunners will be hoping to rekindle some of that 2013 magic just a few weeks before the 10th anniversary of that first trip.

The Roadrunners will need all the help they can get. The slow start might be in the past but now the season hits the stretch run with all of the Roadrunners goals still in front of them.

"These conference games are the ones that matter," Davison said. "Everybody is more bought in and we really believe that we can go and get the (conference) championship. We believe we can win all these games."

UTSA is halfway through its maiden voyage in the American Athletic Conference. It's been smooth sailing so far with four straight double-digit wins but looming up ahead is an Iceberg clad in green that has sunk a few Roadrunner seasons in the past.

If they can get past that North Texas iceberg the Roadrunners will be able to keep their hopes of a conference championship berth alive.

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