Greenville, NC (Sports Network) - Shane Carden completed 25-of-33 passes for 308 yards and five touchdowns to lead the East Carolina Pirates over the Memphis Tigers 41-7 in a Conference USA battle at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

Carden's two favorite targets were Justin Hardy and Justin Jones for East Carolina (4-3, 3-1 C-USA). Hardy caught six passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns. As for Jones, he caught five passes for 80 yards and three touchdowns. No other receiver had more than 20 yards.

The Memphis (1-5, 1-1) Tigers struggled all game offensively. Quarterback Jacob Karam completed 14-of-23 passes for 153 yards. His favorite target was Marcus Rucker who caught seven passes for 88 yards.

The Pirates offense got off to a fast start when Carden completed a touchdown pass to Hardy for 67 yards to put them on top, 7-0.

Carden completed another touchdown pass, this one to Jones for 39 yards to add on to the lead, 14-0.

Warren Harvey made a 37-yard field goal right before the end of the first half to put the Pirates up, 17-0

ECU's defense shut down the Tiger offense allowing only 105 total yards in the first half.

ECU opened up the second half with a 45-yard field goal by Harvey to push the lead to 20-0.

Carden connected with Hardy for a 11-yard touchdown pass to give the Pirates a 27-0 lead midway through the third quarter.

At the end of the third quarter Carden got his fourth passing touchdown of the day when he connected with Jones for 14 yards to give the Pirates a 34-0 lead.

The Pirates regained possession and Carden connected with Jones again, this time from four yards out to put the Pirates up 41-0.

Memphis responded with a three yard touchdown run by Jai Steib to give them their first points of the game, but it was not enough as ECU sealed the victory, 41-7.

ECU outgained Memphis in total yards, 369-281 but had only 61 yards rushing to 115 by the Tigers.

GAME NOTES:

The Sports Network