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GREENVILLE — Matt Dodge breathed a sigh of relief when East Carolina's uneasy 29-24 win over Appalachian State was finally over Saturday afternoon.

And he wasn't alone.

Dodge, a former ASU punter who transferred to ECU during Appalachian's national-title run, had tried to convince his teammates that this wouldn't be an effortless win.

He would've had a harder time convincing the sea of purple in the stands at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. East Carolina led 24-0 barely into the second quarter, and the first meeting between two old Southern Conference foes in 30 years was headed for a lopsided outcome. The music was blaring, and the band was playing and the Pirates were dancing in the aisles.

Dodge looked at the stands and then the other sideline. He didn't necessarily like what he saw. He'd spent a year in Boone, endured the harsh winter of 2005 that ended with the Mountaineers winning the school's first national championship. He knew this game wasn't over.

"I was telling everybody, 'This isn't going to be a blowout. These guys don't know how to lose. They don't know how to give up'," Dodge said.

Appalachian's comeback fell short when ECU defensive end Scotty Robinson sacked ASU quarterback Travaris Cadet with less than a minute to play to push back the Mountaineers' last advance. A crowd of 43,279 erupted as a strange two-sided game finally ended.

"East Carolina has a really good football team," ASU coach Jerry Moore said.

"There's a reason they've won three out of four national championships," ECU coach Skip Holtz said.

No rematch is scheduled.

Holtz watched his team bolt to an early lead, gashing Appalachian's defense with quick passes and long runs. The visiting Mountaineers, here for the first time since 1978, looked slow and unable to match the Pirates in any way. It looked like a mismatch. ECU scored on three of its first five possessions, and Appalachian didn't earn a first down until the second quarter.

At halftime, however, it was ASU that made the adjustments and ECU that rested on its lead. Bad idea, Dodge thought.

"I knew early on we were getting yards kind of easy," Dodge said. "I knew that was going to stop. Their coaching staff's too good. I said 'They're going to make the adjustments.' They did, and we were lucky to come out with a win."

Holtz had seen ASU on film, but he hadn't seen the ASU spread offense in person. With starting quarterback Armanti Edwards out after a summer mowing accident and backup DeAndre Presley struggling to move the Appalachian offense, the Mountaineers stunned the Pirates with a personnel move. They inserted Cadet, a sophomore kick returner and the No. 3 quarterback, into the game. It was as if Edwards himself had returned.

Suddenly, the no-huddle, spread offense put ECU on the defensive. Suddenly the Pirates were reeling on almost every play as Cadet ran around and through the ECU defenders.

A 29-7 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter was all of a sudden 29-24 with 1:28 to play, and ASU had the ball near midfield.

With a large part of the ECU student section already empty and a defense on its last legs from chasing a player no one had seen on film, Robinson took it upon himself. The senior from Salisbury broke through the ASU protection and took down Cadet at the Appalachian 40 to finally turn back the Mountaineers as the clock ran down and the crowd noise became deafening and the former ASU punter exhaled.

He left Boone because he couldn't stand the weather, and he knew deep down that the experience made him tougher. He also knew the team he was looking at across the way was not the team everyone saw in the first half Saturday.

ECU didn't lose, and both Dodge and Holtz said that was the most important thing about the opener. Only two years removed from its shocking season-opening win over Michigan, the ASU thing left an impression on East Carolina. The schools hadn't played at all since 1979, and they aren't scheduled to play again.

Dodge, a senior, probably wouldn't mind the schools playing from now on. Holtz said he would love to see the schools play regularly. He didn't sound convincing.

"It's kind of like the eastern team against the western team," he said. "We needed to play this game."

Safely ahead 24-0 and headed for a one-sided win Saturday, a lot of people in the packed stands would've agreed with that. By the end of the day, with ECU clinging to a hard-fought victory, though, the fans of the eastern team were glad to see the western team go home.

And so did a Morehead City senior who had a unique perspective on a two-sided game that ended with him shaking hands on both sides.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com