Pirates’ fourth-quarter lead erased in final minute

ORLANDO, Fla. — Mark-Antony Richards’ 1-yard touchdown smash with 23 seconds left to play lifted Central Florida to a 20-16 win over East Carolina on Saturday.

Richards’ score ended an 11-play, 64-yard drive that lasted just a little more than three minutes. His catch for 12 yards on fourth-and-8 kept the drive alive, and he carried the final four plays of the drive the final 27 yards.

“We’re going to have a lot of games like this in this conference that are going to come down to the last drive,” ECU head coach Mike Houston said. “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.”

Holton Ahlers threw for 208 yards, a touchdown and an interception for the Pirates (3-3, 1-1 American Athletic Conference), who were gunning to win their fourth straight for the first time since 2014.

The Pirates’ defense held to force a Knights’ field goal with 5:06 to go, trimming the guests’ lead to 16-13. ECU went three-and-out when it managed just 1 yard on two runs and had a pass broken up. UCF started its winning drive after a punt from its 36-yard-line with 3:39 to go.

ECU went inside the Central Florida 15 on each of its first three drives but came away with just 3 points. The first ended with a lost fumble, the second backed up and ended with a punt from the 39.

“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.”

After a career-high 222 yards last week in a 52-29 win over Tulane, ECU’s Keaton 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.

Johnny Richardson paced UCF (3-2, 1-1 American) on the ground with 104 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown. Mikey Keene threw for 194 yards for the Knights.

“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 has this week off, then goes to Houston on Oct. 23.