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St. Petersburg, Fla. • Vintavious Cooper took over the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl in the fourth quarter in a performance reminiscent of a former East Carolina running back. Just don't bring up that comparison to Cooper.
The senior rushed for a career-best 198 yards and scored two touchdowns, leading the Pirates to a 37-20 victory over Ohio on Monday.
Cooper broke the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl record for yards rushing while becoming the first East Carolina player to win an MVP award in a bowl game since Tennessee Titans star Chris Johnson ran for 223 yards against Boise State in the 2007 Hawaii Bowl.
"It's a great accomplishment and I have to really give it up to the guys up front and all the work they did. When I found out I was close to 100 yards after the first quarter I told them and they got excited about it," Cooper said.
"I would never compare myself to Chris Johnson because I really admire CJ and I look up to CJ."
The Pirates (10-3) grabbed the lead for good on the first of Cooper's two touchdowns runs in the fourth quarter, a 31-yard burst with just under 10 minutes remaining.
East Carolina's Shane Carden threw for 273 yards and one TD and also scored on a pass reception.
Cam Worthy caught an early 5-yard scoring pass from Carden, and then took a lateral and threw 14 yards back to Carden for a fourth-quarter TD that made it 31-20.
Tyler Tettleton and Derrius Vick threw scoring passes for Ohio (7-6), which overcame an early two-touchdown deficit to lead 20-17 before Cooper put East Carolina back in front before an announced crowd of 20,053 at Tropicana Field. —
East Carolina 37, Ohio 20
Ohio 0 14 3 3 — 20
East Carolina 14 3 0 20 — 37
First Quarter
ECU • Worthy 5 pass from Carden (Harvey kick), 10:45.
ECU • B.Allen 2 run (Harvey kick), :27.
Second Quarter
Ohio • Patterson 17 pass from Tettleton (Yazdani kick), 14:39.
Ohio • Foster 80 pass from Vick (Yazdani kick), 9:54.
ECU • FG Harvey 41, 1:01.
Third Quarter
Ohio • FG Yazdani 29, 6:42.
Fourth Quarter
Ohio • FG Yazdani 28, 13:34.
ECU • Cooper 31 run (Harvey kick), 9:45.
ECU • Carden 14 pass from Worthy (Harvey kick), 7:29.
ECU • Cooper 22 run (kick blocked), 1:55.
Attendance • 20,053.
Ohio ECU
First downs 21 30
Rushes-yards 37-107 41-281
Passing 328 287
Comp-Att-Int 24-44-3 30-46-0
Return Yards 2 (-3)
Punts-Avg. 6-42.5 5-43.8
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 1-0
Penalties-yards 5-60 9-75
Time of Possession 26:36 33:24
Individual Statistics
Rushing • Ohio, Blankenship 21-66, Patterson 10-28, Tettleton 4-14,
Vick 2-(minus 1). East Carolina, Cooper 25-198, B.Allen 6-43,
Carden 10-40.
Passing • Ohio, Tettleton 21-40-3-228, Vick 3-3-0-100,
L.Smith 0-1-0-0. East Carolina, Carden 29-45-0-273, Worthy 1-1-0-14.
Receiving • Ohio, Foster 6-160, Patterson 6-77, Cochran 5-33,
L.Smith 2-37, Reid 2-5, Dixon 1-6, Mangen 1-6, Hill 1-4. East Carolina,
Hardy 9-66, I.Jones 8-48, Cooper 3-22, Worthy 2-42, Bry.Williams 2-27,
Pasut 2-23, Wiggins 2-20, B.Allen 1-25, Carden 1-14.