Well before Dominique Davis' 33-yard game-winning touchdown as time expired brought fans to their feet in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, some of those fans were brought to the ground when the bleachers they were standing on gave way in the first quarter.

The collapsed bleachers were in the stadium's new east end zone, a recently expanded section that added 7,000 seats for ECU students.

Freshman Lindsay Campana saw everything unfold from her seat in the new student section, The Boneyard.

"Everyone was jumping up and down, and five rows in front of us we saw a whole bunch of people fall backward," said Campana.

University spokesperson John Durham said about a dozen fans suffered minor injuries, including scrapes, cuts and bruises from the collapsed bleachers.

The collapsed bleachers were removed from the stadium midway through the game. ECU alumnus Brian Murphy said it was a strange situation to see.

"We looked over to the left and saw a large section of the bleachers being carried out --we thought it was odd," said Murphy. "Then a little bit later, we looked over and the whole section was empty."

After several of the bleachers had collapsed, students said they heard an announcement telling them to stop jumping on the bleachers and to keep their feet on the ground. Some students chose to do otherwise.

"That kind of riled us up and made us want to jump more," said freshman Tim Walker. "We kind of turned it into a chant. We would chant every time one of them would give out and we'd get pretty crazy."

Fans sitting in section 25 of The Boneyard were told they had to watch the game from other sections of Dowdy-Ficklen.

"I think everyone was asking the same thing," said junior Matt Hemmett. "How did this happen? They just built this. What's going on?"

ECU officials plan to meet with contractors to determine what caused the bleachers to collapse.

The Pirates return to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday for their next game against the University of the Memphis.