GREENVILLE — Redshirt freshman Shane Carden completed 14-of-18 passes for 143 yards and a touchdown to spearhead the offensive effort, while a surging defensive unit tallied seven tackles for lost yardage on the other side of the ball to highlight East Carolina’s second intra-squad scrimmage of the spring Saturday morning at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The controlled contest, which was played in overcast and cool conditions, consisted of approximately 90 plays featuring all levels of the program’s positional roster.

Pirate quarterbacks combined to complete nearly 65 percent of their passes as Carden, senior Dominique Davis, sophomore Rio Johnson, junior Brad Wornick and true freshman Cody Keith connected on 41-of-64 attempts for 397 yards. While ECU’s offensive unit accounted for 459 yards of total offense and three scores, it was also slowed by eight penalties after being flagged just twice a week ago.

“I was pleased with some of the things I saw today,” head coach Ruffin McNeill said. “Our main focus was addressing penalties, and unfortunately today, those set the offense back. I can’t stress enough the importance for us to be a smart football team and I will keep addressing that on a daily basis.”

Defensively, sophomore linebacker Ty Holmes contributed a team-best six-tackle outing, while fellow sophomore linebacker Kyle Tudor added five stops, including a sack for a seven-yard loss. Junior safety Justin Venable was also credited with five tackles and cornerback Jacobi Jenkins, linebacker Jeremy Grove and safeties Desi Brown and Damon Magazu each chipped in with four stops.

Carden, who enjoyed a run of nine consecutive completions in the latter half of the scrimmage, connected with true freshman receiver Danny Webster on a 13-yard touchdown strike. Davis opened the contest with a 55-yard toss to sophomore receiver Mike Price on the first play and later found junior Dayon Arrington for a 17-yard scoring pass before finishing with a 10-of-16, 120-yard performance. Johnson completed seven of his first eight throws on the way to an 11-of-15, 107-yard effort, which also included short TD pass to Arrington.

Price (four receptions for 96 yards), Webster (7-80) and Arrington (6-49) topped a group of 15 pass catchers during the morning.

The Pirates’ defense enjoyed several highlights with interceptions by Bradley Jacobs and Jenkins, the second of which included a return of 19 yards. The unit also surrendered only 62 rushing yards on 27 carries – an average of just 2.3 yards per attempt – and limited the offense to a nine-of-22 success rate on third down.

“Turnovers were down from the last scrimmage and I was pleased with that, but I always want our defense to generate more of them,” McNeill explained. “I always walk that fine line between wanting both sides of the ball to do well.”

East Carolina will enter its fourth and final week of spring work with practices Monday and Wednesday at the Cliff Moore Practice Complex before battling in the Purple-Gold Game next Saturday beginning at 2:30 p.m. at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

“In the spring game, our main focus will be finishing strong,” McNeill added. “We talked about it in our very first team meeting this year. Another main focus of ours is to establish a personality, which is building ourselves into a smart football team.”

SPRING SCRIMMAGE NO. 2 STATS

RUSHING: Michael Dobson (5-31), Alex Owah (7-30), Torrance Hunt (5-21), John Barnes-Smith (2-14), Dominique Davis (3-<-2>), Cody Keith (2-<-9>), Shane Carden (3-<-23>). Totals ąą 27-62 (2.3 ypr), 0 TD.

PASSING: Shane Carden (18-14-0, 143, 1 TD), Dominique Davis (16-10-1, 120, 1 TD), Rio Johnson (15-11-0, 107, 1 TD), Brad Wornick (8-5-1, 15), Cody Keith (7-1-0, 12). Totals ąą 64-41-2, 397 yards, 3 TD (64.1%).

RECEIVING: Mike Price (4-96), Danny Webster (7-80, 1 TD), Dayon Arrington (6-49, 2 TD), Michael Bowman (4-39), Andrew Bodenheimer (3-36), Jeremy Davis (4-22), Joe Womack (2-19), Carter Gagnon (1-12), Justin Hardy (2-10), Torrance Hunt (2-9), Brandon Weymann (1-8), Derrick Harris (1-5), Reese Wiggins (1-5), Torian Richardson (2-4), Justin Jones (1-3). Totals ąą 41-397, 3 TD

TACKLES: Ty Holmes 6, Kyle Tudor 5 (TFL, sack/-7 yards), Justin Venable 5, Jacobi Jenkins 4 (PB, INT/19-yard return), Jeremy Grove 4 (TFL/-1 yard), Desi Brown 4, Damon Magazu 4, Jacob Geary 3 (TFL, sack/-8 yards), Lamar Ivey 3, Rahkeem Morgan 3, Derrell Johnson 2 (TFL, sack/-7 yards), Matt Milner 2 (TFL/-6 yards), Derek Blacknall 2 (PB), James Craig 2, Emanuel Davis 2, Mitchell Kamphuis 2, Leonard Paulk 2, Lee Pegues 2, Cliff Perryman 2, Diavalo Simpson 2, Bradley Jacobs 1 (INT), Terry Biles 1 (TFL, sack/-8 yards), Josh Cunningham 1 (TFL, sack/-2 yards), Daniel Drake 1, Maurice Falls 1, Robert Huckabee 1, Kristopher Sykes (PB)