East Carolina Falls to UCF 20-16
UCF came from behind, limiting ECU to a field goal in scoring position late when a touchdown would have iced the game. The Knights then scored on a Mark Antony Richardson two-yard game winning touchdown run with twenty seconds remaining to seal up a 20-16 win Saturday night in Orlando.
The loss harkened back to December of 2014 when ECU was seemingly in business deep in UCF territory late in the game in Greenville, but played conservatively with the football and eventually lost late on a game winning hail Mary pass at the end.
ECU had multiple chances to score touchdowns deep in Knight territory throughout the contest, but was forced to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns. In the end it came back to haunt the Pirates.
“You’re going to look at the video tomorrow and it was one play here, one play there. You thought you had the game won multiple times,” said ECU head coach Mike Houston who talked about UCF converting on fourth-and-eight to keep the drive alive that led to the winning touchdown, “I felt like that was the ballgame. If we could get that stop there obviously the game is over and we didn’t. We still should have gotten a stop on that drive and we never should have given up the touchdown. You had the right calls. You have to make the plays.”
But it was the Pirates’ inability to convert solid drives into touchdowns deep in UCF territory on multiple occasions ultimately proved to be their undoing.
“That’s a good defensive football team there and you have to get touchdowns,” Houston stated, “You had two there in the first quarter where you come away with no points when you’re in range. I just had a bad feeling there after those two drives. I was hoping it wouldn’t come back to bite us, but it did. Hats off to UCF. They made the plays there in the fourth quarter to win the game. I hate that there had to be a loser.”
Freshman quarterback Mikey Keene led UCF with 194 yards through the air to go along with one interception while Johnny Richardson ran for 104 yards on 16 carries with a touchdown to lead the Knight rushing game.
All told, Holton Ahlers threw for 223 yards with one touchdown and one interception for the Pirates and Rahjai Harris had a productive outing with 73 ground yards, but the Knights were able to largely shut down big play running back Keaton Mitchell who was limited to just 63 yards on the night. Tyler Snead with six catches for 82 yards led the ECU receiver corp while Audi Omotosho hauled in four catches and a touchdown in his 55 yards.
In a sloppy first quarter for both teams where ECU fumbled on the Knight ten-yard line after what looked to be a promising drive, UCF eventually got on the scoreboard first in the second quarter on a 35-yard Daniel Obarski field goal. ECU(3-3/1-1 AAC) then tied the game on a 29-yard field goal from Owen Daffer.
The two teams went into the locker room at halftime tied with Mikey Keene throwing for just 72 yards and Holton Ahlers passing for 145 yards to seven different receivers with one interception and a pair of squandered ECU opportunities inside the twenty yard line.
Tyler Snead had a solid first half with five catches for 61 yards to lead the Pirates, but the ECU ground game was largely absent with Keaton Mitchell and Rahjai Harris combining for only 44 yards.
ECU took their first lead of the game at 6-3 on a 23-yard Daffer field goal early in the second half after Juan Powell’s interception put the Pirates in business deep in UCF territory.
Johnny Richardson’s four-yard touchdown run midway into the third quarter was his first of the season and the Knights were suddenly back in command at 10-6.
Audi Omotosho’s 27-yard touchdown grab, his first of the season on a pass from Holton Ahlers, put East Carolina back up 13-10 with 2:43 to go in the third quarter.
Then UCF(3-2/1-1 AAC) came up with a big third down coverage sack that once again limited East Carolina to a 34-yard Owen Daffer field goal and a precarious 16-10 lead with just 7:01 remaining.
The Knight’s got a big 49-yard catch and run from Johnny Richardson that set UCF up for a Daniel Obarski career long forty-yard field goal to trim the ECU lead to three with five minutes to go before the Knights delivered the game winning score to claim the victory.
The Pirates will have a bye week next week before traveling to TDECU Stadium to take on Houston in two weeks.
