ORLANDO, Fla. -- Opportunities to knock off UCF, one of the long-time kingpins of the American Athletic Conference, have been rare for East Carolina lately.
That chance arrived Saturday night at a loud and energetic Bounce House as the Pirates stood on the verge of a monumental victory, but a 1-yard touchdown run by Mark-Antony Richards with just 23 seconds to play lifted the Knights to a 20-16 comeback victory.
The heartbreaking loss for ECU (3-3, 1-1 AAC) not only denied a bid at halting a five-game losing skid in the series with the Knights (3-2, 1-1) but also kept the Pirates from their first four-game winning streak since 2014 and a 2-0 start in conference play.
And head coach Mike Houston knows just how close his team came.
"That game, you're going to look at tomorrow and it's going to be one play here, one play there," Houston said. "You thought you had the game won multiple times."
ECU could not say that much in the last decade against UCF. The Knights won the previous five meetings by a combined 24.6 points, including 13-point and 23-point wins over Houston-coached teams, and has now won eight of the last nine meetings. However Houston, in his third year leading the Pirates, sees the gap closing.
"We've got a good football team," Houston said. "We're going to have a lot of games like this in this conference that are going to come down to the last drive. This is a tough league. I told the kids, we were down here two years ago, and it was 35-7 at the half. We've got a good football team. The thing is these kids play the game the right way, they play with heart, they play with intensity. You've just got to make those plays there in those closing moments to win the game, and UCF made the plays, and we didn't."
The Pirates can certainly count numerous missed opportunities early in Saturday's game. Each of the first three drives penetrated UCF territory, and two reached inside the 15, but the Pirates came away with just three points on one of freshman Owen Daffer's three field goals.
Keaton Mitchell's fumble at the 8 ended the first possession at the end of a 10-play drive.
"You have to get touchdowns," Houston said. "You had two there in the first quarter that you come away with no points when you're in range. I had a bad feeling there after those two drives. I was hoping it wouldn't come back to bite us, but it did."
But not until the final minute. The Pirates, who held the Knights without a first-half touchdown for the first time since 2015 and went to the half tied 3-3, owned the lead after Holton Ahlers connected with Audie Omotosho for a 27-yard score with 2:43 left in the third quarter until Richards scored the clinching touchdown.
A 16-play drive that consumed 8:16 of the fourth quarter ended in a 34-yard field goal by Daffer that put ECU up 16-10.
A stingy ECU defense that stymied the UCF offense much of the evening then limited the Knights to a 40-yard field goal by Daniel Obarski to preserve the lead with 5:06 to play, but a three-and-out series turned the ball over to UCF for one final drive.
The Knights began on their 36 and quickly moved into ECU territory on a 16-yard pass from true freshman Mikey Keene to Mokiao Atimalala, but then faced a decisive fourth-and-8 from the 43 as the clock ticked under two minutes.
Keene, who finished 23 of 35 for 194 yards, responded with his most crucial completion of night, hooking up with Richards for 12 yards and a first down.
"I felt like that was the ballgame," Houston said. "I felt like if we could get that stop there, obviously the game's over. We still should have gotten a stop there on that drive. We never should have given up a touchdown."
The Knights scored four plays later – the last 27 yards coming on runs by Richards. The game-winner came on a 1-yarder.
Richards finished with 58 yards on just six carries, but 5-7, 170-pound sophomore Johnny Richardson proved to be the Knights' star. The elusive running back rushed for 104 yards on 16 carries and caught a pair of passes for 51 yards.
"He's a very talented player," Houston said. "We felt like, watching the film early in the year, he was their best back. I know they were without another back tonight, but I think he's the best one as far as play-making ability, and he made the plays."
After a career-high 222 yards last week in a 52-29 rout of Tulane, Mitchell managed just 65 yards on 17 attempts with a long run of 17 yards. The fleet freshman entered the game with eight runs of 20-plus yards and four of 60 or more.
Fellow freshman Rahjai Harris led ECU with 73 rushing yards on 13 attempts.
Ahlers finished 20-of-32 for 208 yards with one touchdown and one interception. His 20 completions give him 677 for his career and moved him to fourth on the school's career list ahead of David Garrard.
Tyler Snead emerged as his favorite target with six catches for 82 yards, extending his streak of games with at least one catch to 27. Omotosho and Ryan Jones had four receptions each, but C.J. Johnson was shut out for the first time in his 17-game career.
Juan Powell came up big for the Pirates' defense with six tackles, including one for a loss, and an interception that set up a third-quarter field goal that put ECU up 6-3.
ECU help UCF to 359 total yards and kept the Knights under 30 points for just the fourth time in their last 43 games.
But only the score matters to Houston.
"Hats off to UCF; they made the plays there in the fourth quarter to win the game," he said. "I hate it that we had to be a loser."
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October 10, 2021 at 10:40AM
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Late Score Helps Knights Edge Pirates - East Carolina University Athletics - ECUPirates.com
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