GREENVILLE — The scoreboard might have said differently, but East Carolina had Marshall all the way at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Friday.

With plenty to play for, the Pirates' will to win never wavered in a 65-59 double overtime victory over Marshall.

ECU coach Ruffin McNeill said "heart" came to mind as the Pirates succeeded down the stretch with no margin for error but plenty of motivation.

It was Senior Day. The players, coaches and ECU fans among the crowd of 46,317 knew that nothing short of victory is acceptable when a guy comes out on the field with his parents in his last home game.

The Pirates had to prevail in order to keep their chances alive for the Conference USA East Division championship. ECU needs UAB to win at Central Florida today in order for the Pirates (8-4, 7-1 C-USA) to play at Tulsa next Saturday for the league title.

There was also the matter of retribution. Circumstances were similar to last year's matchup when the Thundering Herd won 34-27 at home in overtime to end ECU's string of five straight bowl trips. The Pirates were already bowl eligible this season, but Marshall came in a win shy of the six-win plateau that enables the postseason.

McNeill confided in his postgame remarks that it felt good to repay Marshall (5-7, 4-4) for the 2011 finale.

ECU trailed 52-45 with the ball at its own 24 with 1:55 left in regulation. McNeill knew ECU had a realistic chance with one timeout left. Facing fourth and 10 at the 24, Shane Carden hit Justin Hardy for 19 yards and a first down. It was the type of play that defines the great ones. Carden completed 38 of 47 for 439 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

McNeill said after last week's 28-23 win at Tulane, in which Carden's numbers were not as impressive, that the sophomore would come back with a good game this week. How prophetic was that?

Hardy continues to dazzle, making a school record 16 catches for 171 yards against the Herd. He surpassed 1,000 yards receiving for the season.

Carden hit Hardy twice more on ECU's last scoring drive in regulation for gains of 16 and 19 yards to get into the red zone where the Pirates were 8-for-8 on the day. Carden passed to Reese Wiggins for five yards to get ECU to the Marshall 6-yard line. It appeared that Hardy might have been bumped on a throw to the right side of the end zone with 10 seconds left but there was no flag.

Danny Webster brushed a linebacker and got open in the back of the end zone to make a leaping grab of a Carden dart with four seconds to go.

"I told Shane after Webster made that catch that we were going to win," said senior Andrew Bodenheimer who had three catches for 65 yards. "He said, 'Yeah, I know.' "

Carden put Bodenheimer on alert on the first play of the first overtime.

"They were cheating over on Hardy," Bodenheimer said. "Shane said he thought I might be open."

McNeill said offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley wanted to go for the bundle on the first play. Carden found Bodenheimer near the right goal line pylon to put ECU ahead.

The Herd answered in nine plays with backup quarterback Blake Frohnapfel hitting Antavious Wilson for a 4-yard score. Frohnapfel played well after starter Rakeem Cato went out in the second half with a left leg injury. Frohnapfel escaped on an improbable 51-yard touchdown run that put the Herd ahead 45-42.

ECU went on defense at the west end to start the second overtime and Herd running back Essray Taliaferro, who ran for 130 yards on 27 carries, was stripped of the ball by Chrishon Rose on a second and one at the Pirates' 16-yard line.

Linebacker Derrell Johnson, who had been around the ball all day with 14 tackles, 2.5 sacks and two tackles for loss, was trailing the play when he saw the loose ball on the turf.

"My eyes got big," Johnson said.

It was a big play, an act of piracy no less, a huge turnover that meant any score would allow ECU to fulfill its motivating circumstances.

ECU got conservative but moved toward the goal on carries of six, 12 and six yards by Vintavious Cooper, who eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing for the season.

Carden appeared stalled momentarily on a keeper from a yard out but did a little leap on the pile that put him in the end zone.

The game ended and the celebration began.

The seniors had the exclamation point in their last home game.

"I can remember coming out of the tunnel for my first home game in 2008 against West Virginia (a 24-3 ECU win)," said senior backup quarterback Brad Wornick, who initially walked on in the Skip Holtz coaching era. "I told the boys after the game today I wouldn't have it any other way. I've been through it all here. I've been in the game. I threw a touchdown (in the 2010 Military Bowl) but it's not about that. What I've learned is that it's about the team, putting your ego aside and doing anything you can to help the team.

"That's what I've bought into."

There was no doubt that Wornick felt he had made a good purchase as he and 16 classmates bid Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium farewell as players. Wornick is an Economics major but wants to go into coaching.

There also was no doubt about the outcome, although ECU had to regroup as Marshall rallied from deficits of 28-7 and 35-14 in the highest scoring Conference USA contest ever. It conjured memories of a 64-61 double overtime loss to Marshall in the 2001 GMAC Bowl.

That game in Mobile that matched quarterbacks Byron Leftwich and David Garrard was a bitter pill for Pirate Nation. Its cousin on Saturday had a contrasting outcome, one that left the fan base glowing.

It was a matchup in which the intangibles factored heavily in favor of a maturing program at ECU.

"I'm just so proud of my teammates for the heart they showed out there," Bodenheimer said. "We never thought for a moment that we were going to lose that game."

View box score and statistics on ecupirates.com

Read game recap on ecupirates.com