Stokes Drags Memphis past East Carolina 41-34 in Overtime
Marcus Stokes had a hand in all five Memphis touchdowns, and Memphis needed all five to beat East Carolina 41-34 in overtime.
It did not look like that early. East Carolina went up 10-0 on a Noah Perez field goal and an Ashton Gray one-yard run, and Perez added two more field goals in the second quarter, the last from 49 yards as the half ran out, for a 16-3 lead. Memphis had only Philippe Laforge's 31-yarder to show for the first half. Then the third quarter happened. Stokes hit Jermane Hayes for 59 yards, TJ Engleman scored for East Carolina (with a two-point conversion) to make it 24-10, and Memphis got it back with a 20-yard Stokes touchdown pass to Jemyri Davis and a Laforge 34-yard field goal. By the end of the third, it was 24-20.
The fourth quarter kept swinging. Perez kicked a 40-yarder to make it 27-20, Stokes found Davis again from four yards to tie it at 27-27, and he scored from two yards out with 3:31 left to put Memphis ahead 34-27, the only lead change of the game. Mitch Griffis answered with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Landon Sides with 1:30 left to make it 34-34, and then Memphis won it in overtime when Stokes ran in from five yards out.
Memphis had 484 yards to East Carolina's 421, and 320 of them were through the air. East Carolina threw two interceptions and lost a fumble, while Memphis lost one fumble and threw none. Memphis moves to 6-2, and East Carolina falls to 3-4, a team that led by 13 at the half and lost anyway.
Stokes finished with 45.9 points, but Davis and Sides each had a big day too.