Orlando, FL. – Week 7 of the college football season brought many shock wins and scores, just not in Orlando. East Carolina kept their streak of games scored in and extended it to 273 games while UCF extended their streak of having a passing and rushing touchdown to 33 games.
The 1st quarter of a UCF home game usually consists of about 20 points from the blistering UCFast offense and that’s exactly what we got tonight. A 21-0 throttling of East Carolina where the Knights racked up a total of 16 first downs comparative to the Pirates 6. The second quarter would provide much of the same as UCF would tack on fourteen more points and East Carolina would only hit two field goals in the first half to make the score 35-6.
Darriel Mack made a few appearances at QB for UCF throughout the game. He hit Gabriel Davis for a 33-yard touchdown strike right after he converted a 3rd & 2 run. He came in in marginal moments and made a bigger impact than expected. His final statline would finish at 2-4 passing for 49 yards and a touchdown.
The second half came and UCF did not seem prepared. The offense was very sloppy and went three-and-out three drives in a row to start the half and they turned the ball over on a Dillon Gabriel fumble. The pirates somewhat capitalized on the UCF sloppiness and made the score 22-41 at the end of the 3rd quarter. It seemed like there could be a comeback brewing on the away sideline.
Unfortunately for East Carolina there would be no comeback as UCF’s defense would step up and only allow one touchdown the rest of the night. UCF would stop the two-point conversion try and the score would end up finishing 28-41 in favor of the hometown Knights. Dillon Gabriel would finish the night 22-35 passing for 365 yards and two touchdowns, he would also rush for one TD. Gabriel Davis had 164 yards receiving for two TD’s and a long of 33 yards. East Carolina QB, Holton Ahlers went 23-37 passing for 313 yards with one TD and one interception thrown.
The Knights travel to Temple for another American conference battle and East Carolina go back home and The Bulls of USF travel up north for an American conference clash in Greenville.
Written by Zach Bartkus
FINAL 41-28
Marlon Williams 52-yard reception (career-long)
2nd half slump for UCF
