Annapolis is never an easy place to pick up a win, especially on senior day, but ECU came up big on both defense and offense late in the game and then came up big on special teams with a 54-yard game winning field goal from Owen Daffer for a 38-35 win on Senior Day as the game clock expired.
Holton Ahlers found Tyler Snead on a 46-yard strike that advanced the football to the Navy 32 yard line as time was running out and the rest was up to Daffer.
Navy called two timeouts in an effort to ice the Wilmington freshman, but it proved to be to no avail as the Pirates grab only their second win over Navy in nine tries, both of which happened on the road in Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and both by the exact same score. The only other win came in 2011.
It was the longest field goal of his career and tied the longest in ECU history. (Warren Harvey also made one of 54 yards vs. Southern Miss on Sept. 15, 2012). Afterward Daffer was put on scholarship and it will go down in ECU football lore as one of truly clutch performances in the history of the program.
“They put me on scholarship and gave me the game ball. It was emotional the whole time,” said Daffer, “I’m very happy to be on scholarship.”
Afterward, Daffer described what he was thinking and how he felt coming into the 54-yard field goal attempt.
“Something that I hang my hat on and rely on in my head is that I can come through in big time situations and I just keep on getting chances to prove it. I thank God that I’m able to come through with them,” said Daffer, “I was pretty calm and I was just thinking walk-off home run and why not? I felt it really good and I saw it in the air and I was like, that’s dead center and then I was like just go and before it even crossed I was getting trampled.”
Daffer made field goals of 37, 25 and the 54 yard game winner along with a hundred percent of his extra points. It proved big in the end for a surging Pirate team that picked up it’s seventh victory for the first time since 2014 when the Pirates won eight.
“My fathest in high school was fifty (yards) so that was farther than any kick that I’ve had in a game,” said Daffer who was this week's AAC special teams player of the week, “I was pretty confident about it. I kicked a 65 a couple times in practice and one time in a competition so I was pretty confident.
Slade Roy the snapper and punter Jonn Young, the holder did their part too and kept the kicking operation efficient all afternoon for ECU.
“I love those guys and I trust them with everything,” said Daffer, “I feel like they’re going to do the same thing every time and they’ve proven me right because they are both just elite so it makes my job easier and I appreciate that a lot. Not a lot of people get that.”
Needless to say, ECU head coach Mike Houston came away impressed.
I’ve had some game winning kicks like that - walk-offs, but that one is incredible,” said Houston, “On the road at Navy, 54-yarder, congratulations to him. What a freaking kick. He said I’m good coach and the kids were all in on it. Great snap, great hold, great protection and he nailed it. I knew this game was going to be like this. I didn’t know this game was going to be this high scoring, but I knew it was going to be tight.”
All told, the Pirates generated 563 yards of total offense led by quarterback Holton Ahlers who logged what will go down as a legendary ECU performance completing 27 of 32 for 405 yards and three touchdowns.
“A shoutout to the O-line. Without them I can’t do anything. The receivers made a lot of good plays. Coach K (offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick) called a great game and you can’t do anything without talking about Owen Daffer,” said Ahlers, “We had a hail Mary called. I begged Coach, I said he can make it, he can make it and he went out there and drilled it. I’m super proud of him. The Pirates, we’re back. We’re going for eight and nine now, we’re excited. We’ve just got to keep building.”
Keaton Mitchell rushed for 94-yards and one touchdown to go over a thousand yards at 1,077 for the season and the ECU receiver corp came up big all day long. They were led by Tyler Snead’s two touchdowns and 137 yards on five catches. UCLA transfer Audi Omotosho came up big all day with nine catches for 94 yards along with 89 yards from C.J. Johnson and five catches from tight end Ryan Jones who also scored a touchdown in the victory.
The ECU defense proved big throughout against one of the toughest offenses to stop in the country, regardless of records and defensive lineman Elijah Morris described the Navy challenge.
“You’ve got to be real disciplined and tough because one thing about Navy is the job is to make your job as hard as it can be,” said Morris, “You’ve really got to do your job and focus on your responsibility. Their job is to make you quit and we never stopped fighting this whole time and I’m proud of us. If we didn’t practice like we came out and did this week, it would have looked like the score two years ago.”
GAME DESCRIPTION
Navy gave ECU fits early on the ground and all told they logged 382 yards of total offense and all but 37 of them were on the ground. The Midshipmen were led by Carlinos Acie who rushed for 155 yards on just six carries including a 90-yard touchdown.
Keaton Mitchell and Ryan Jones carried the ECU offense on their backs on the first drive of the game, marching right down the field on a six play 75-yard drive for an early 7-0 lead. Mitchell ran for 49 yards in just four plays and Jones caught a pair of Holton Ahlers passes for 26 yards in the process.
Navy’s offense then had the Pirates fooled on a ten play, 78-yard opening drive to tie the game at 7-7 midway into the first quarter on a four-yard Tai Lavatai to Mychal Cooper touchdown pass. It was one of two wide open passes in the drive.
But Ahlers and ECU(7-4/5-2 AAC) answered, cranking up the Pirate air game on a 24-yard pass to Audi Omotosho before finding Tyler Snead on a forty-yard scoring strike on a post pattern. That put the Pirates back on top 14-7 with just under three minutes left in the first quarter.
Navy(2-8/2-5 AAC) got on the scoreboard again early in the second quarter on a four-yard Lavatai to Chance Warren touchdown pass to tie the game at 14-14. It was just his fourth career touchdown pass and his second of the game.
Audi Omotosho seemed to catch a 19-yard touchdown from Ahlers with 5:32 to go in the half, but it was stripped on the way down by Jamal Glenn who caught the ball out of bounds in the back of the end zone. That led to a 37-yard Owen Daffer field goal for a 17-14 ECU lead.
The Midshipmen took a 21-17 lead on an Issac Ruoss touchdown run where he went 19 yards untouched through the middle of the ECU defense.
Late in the half, Ahlers found C.J. Johnson on a 54-yard strike to keep the drive going at the Navy 26-yard line. Three Pirates runs and two timeouts later, ECU found themselves in a fourth-and-two situation at the Navy five yard line where Ahlers found a wide open Ryan Jones in the end zone with 18 seconds to go for a 24-21 halftime lead.
Ahlers passed for 197 in the first two quarters on 11 of 12 completions with two touchdowns and Keaton Mitchell ran for 65 yards and a touchdown for ECU. Tai Lavatai completed all three of his passes for 35 yards and two touchdowns for a Navy team that ran for 184 yards by halftime.
After a defensive stop to open the second half, the Pirates marched down the field and eventually went for it on fourth-and-two where they came up empty on a errant pass from Ahlers to Audi Omotosho on a slant pattern in the end zone.
Navy struck one minute into the fourth quarter on a Carlinos Acie scamper down the left sideline for a touchdown. The one play, 90-yard run gave the Midshipmen a 28-24 lead.
One of the bigger plays of the game was a third down catch at the Navy 44-yard line from Audi Omotosho that was a foot short of a first down. Holton Ahlers then faked a handoff on fourth down and took off up the middle, bouncing the football off the ground and catching it in the process for a first down at the forty.
Ahlers then found Tyler Snead who ran to the 14-yard line. Ahlers hit Johnson on a pass to the seven yard line leaving the Pirates one yard short of a first down in the red zone. ECU opted not to go for it and Owen Daffer’s 25-yard field goal was good to cut the lead to one at 28-27.
Navy struck again when Maquel Haywood took the ensuing kickoff 98-yards for a touchdown and suddenly Navy had a 35-27 lead with 8:33 to play and things were not looking promising for ECU.
The Pirates found themselves in a fourth-and-four at the Navy 28 yard line with just over five minutes to play when Holton Ahlers found Tyler Snead for a clutch touchdown. ECU went for the two-point conversion where Ahlers connected with C.J. Johnson in the end zone. The seven play, 70 yard drive tied the game at 35-35 with five minutes remaining.
Ahlers passed to Tyler Snead for 46-yards and a first down at the Navy 32-yard line with just 1:11 to play that eventually led to the 54-yard Owen Daffer field goal for the game winner.
East Carolina now prepares to take on undefeated (4)Cincinnati in a showdown in Greenville next Friday night.
“We’re going to be ready. We’re going to practice our butts off this week and prepare like we do every week,” said Morris, “and you know… it’s going to be a showdown.”
