ECU Drops Conference Opener To UCF, 47-29

Saturday, October 1

Greenville, N.C.

12:00 P.M.

East Carolina University

2-3 , 0-1

UCF

3-2 , 1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

UCF

East Carolina

October 01, 2016 | Football

Box Score

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GREENVILLE, N.C. – UCF scored a pair of touchdowns 15 seconds apart in the opening minute of the fourth quarter to kill an East Carolina rally and give the Knights a 47-29 win in the American Athletic Conference opener for each team in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

In game which was eerily following the script of the 2014 meeting of the teams on Bagwell Field, when the Pirates rallied from a 26-9 deficit only to lose on a last-minute Hail Mary pass, ECU clawed back from a 16-point hole to draw within two points at 23-21 at the start of the fourth period.

Senior wide receiver Zay Jones, who notched his 10th career game with 10 or more catches and over 100 yards receiving, pulled in a 9-yard scoring pass from senior quarterback Philip Nelson to finish a 10-play, 56-yard drive and revive an ECU squad which had to survive a gauntlet of miscues to stay in the fray.

Jones, who finished with 17 catches for 137 yards, now has a dozen career games with at least 10 catches and 14 outings with more than 100 yards receiving. He ran his streak of games with at least one reception to 40.

On the first play of the Pirates' next possession, Nelson was knocked out of the game when sandwiched by Knight defenders following a passing attempt. He finished the game completing 26 of 43 passes with a pair of touchdown strikes and 296 yards against an interception. He also paced the ECU rushing game with 15 yards on 10 carries.

Sophomore transfer Gardner Minshew stepped in to uncork a 75-yard touchdown to junior wide receiver Quay Johnson on his first passing attempt in Purple & Gold. Freshman Jake Verity's extra point boot put ECU right back in the contest with just 13 ticks gone in the final period.

But the Knights shut off any Pirate hopes of a repeat of the finish of two years ago with a decisive answer.

Senior quarterback Justin Holman found junior tight end Jordan Franks, who ran a wheel route, on the left sideline for a 40-yard completion to the ECU 14. On the next play, senior running back Dontravious Wilson burst through the middle to push the UCF lead to 30-21 with 14:20 on the clock.

After the Pirates were pinned back at their own 11-yard line on the ensuing kickoff, Minshew tried to feather a pass over the charging UCF line from near the goalline only to see freshman defensive lineman Brendon Hayes leap to intercept the ball at the four and stroll into the endzone with 14:05 left.

A frustrated ECU first-year head coach Scottie Montgomery was blunt in his post-game interview.

"We don't know how to finish drives,' he stated. "We couldn't protect the football. We couldn't protect the passer when we needed to.

"We're in a rut in the redzone."

The rest of the game was an offensive seesaw with both teams piling up yardage and points.

The UCF defensive line dominated play, limiting the Pirates to just 48 yards rushing on 32 attempts and harassing ECU quarterbacks throughout the game.

"We knew that it was going to be a physical battle up front," said senior center J.T. Boyd. "They knew how to win their one-on-one battles. They were very well coached and it showed today."

ECU ran 102 plays and amassed 521 yards in the contest while the Knights got 177 of their 373 yards in the final quarter.

A disastrous 14-minute stretch which bridged the half turned the tables after it seemed that the Pirates had seized control of the contest with a 14-play, 84-yard scoring drive. A 16-yard pass to freshman wide receiver Deondre Farrier from Nelson capped the game's initial scoring drive. Farrier notched his first career points by going airborne to snatch the ball away from a Knight defensive back at the goalline on a curl pattern from the left side. Verity's PAT kick made it 7-0 with 11:33 left in the half.

Then the avalanche, which sent UCF into the half with a 16-7, began to rumble.

Freshman running back Adrian Killins brought the ensuing kickoff out of his own endzone, cut from the middle of the field at around the 30-yard line toward the left sideline and sprinted untouched to the endzone to level the score in just 12 seconds.

"Our whole right side collapsed," Montgomery said. "He had so much speed that we knew he was gone as soon as he got into the open."

The Pirates could have taken the lead on their next possession, but freshman Jake Verity's 31-yard field goal sailed wide left with 7:59 left in the half.

Then over the final 6:40 of the half, everything that could go wrong for the Pirates did. First, a 58-yard pass from Nelson to Farrier was negated by a holding penalty to kill a promising drive.

Then, UCF senior Caleb Houston unloaded a 70-yard punt which rolled dead at the ECU 2 yardline to set up a Knight safety when senior linebacker Mark Rucker shot a gap in the middle to drop junior running back Anthony Scott two yards deep in the endzone.

The Pirates' free kick following the safety rolled out of bounds, setting up UCF at midfield. Three plays later, Wilson ripped through the right side, picked up a downfield block from sophomore tight end Jordan Akins, and raced 35-yards to paydirt.

A 50-yard pass from Nelson to senior wide receiver Jimmy Williams put the Pirates at the UCF 10 with 2:37 left in the period, but disaster struck on the next play.

Nelson connected with Farrier near the right sideline only to see safety T.J. Mutcherson strip the ball away at the five. The ball rolled into the endzone where senior defensive back Shaquill Griffin pounced on the fumble.

Hopes of a quick reversal of fortune to begin the second half were dashed when the Knights scored immediately following a three-and-out Pirate possession. Under heavy pressure senior Gregory Worth punched a 32-yard punt out-of-bounds from his own endzone to set up a 2-play scoring burst, which staked the Knights to a 16-point lead. Holman connected with Franks for 33 yards to the Pirate two before freshman running back Jawon Hamilton bulled the final yards up the gut to make it 23-7.

Each team had chances to score in the first period, but neither team could tally.

Knight sophomore wide receiver Tre'Quan Smith got behind the Pirate secondary but could not hold onto a 35-yard pass into the right side of the endzone from Holman with 12 minutes gone.

With less than six minutes left in the period, the Pirates used to 33-yard pass from Nelson to senior wide receiver Jimmy Williams to get a first down at the Knight 12. But as Farrier was pulling in a crossing pass from Nelson inside the 10, a hit from senior defensive back Drico Johnson popped the ball into the air and into the hands of defensive back T.J. Mutcherson at the two.

ECU (2-3, 0-1 AAC) will try to snap a three-game skid at USF (3-1, 0-0 AAC) on Saturday.