HOUSTON — Alton McCaskill ran 25-yards for a touchdown in overtime, Houston’s defense forced a turnover in the extra session and the Cougars beat East Carolina 31-24 late Saturday.
The game, which was originally set to begin at 3 p.m. Central, was delayed 20 minutes due to lightning. At 3:20 p.m., it was delayed after a brief start and didn’t resume until five hours later. It ended close to midnight in Houston.
It finally ended when JoVanni Stewart recovered Ryan Jones’ fumble which was initiated on a tackle by Donavan Mutin after Jones took a short pass from Holton Ahlers.
“The kids hung in there and got it to the fourth quarter, got a score, got a turnover, and got another score,” said ECU head coach Mike Houston. “We had a chance to win it in regulation, and that’s what I thought was going to happen. It’s almost unbelievable the turn of events the last couple of minutes with overtime and the tail end of the fourth.”
Down 24-10, Ahlers ran it in from the 1 with 6:59 left in regulation before the Cougars (6-1, 4-0 American Athletic Conference) turned it over on their first play from scrimmage on the following drive. Teagan Wilk forced a fumble, and Suirad Ware recovered it.
Inheriting a short field, Ahlers threw a 13-yard scoring pass to Audie Omotosho with 5:43 left to force overtime. Ahlers threw for 278 yards and two touchdowns for ECU (3-4, 1-2).
ECU had two more possessions in regulation, but both ended with punts. The first of those drives got to the Pirates’ 48-yard-line.
“I expected it to be just like Marshall,” Houston said. “We’ve got a lot of confidence and we were very aggressive. We took our shots. Unfortunately that gave Houston a couple of possessions there late because we were being aggressive. But at the same time, I thought our defense was playing well enough that we could be aggressive and try and win the game.”
Clayton Tune threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns for Houston.
Ahlers was 23 of 37 passing. He’s now completed 700 passes in his career, third-best in school history. Tyler Snead was a favorite target, catching seven passes for 114 yards.
Keaton Mitchell was limited to 11 carries for 38 yards.
Jeremy Lewis led the ECU defense with nine stops, including 1.5 sacks.
The Cougars converted two first-half turnovers into touchdowns, and ran a kickoff back 98 yards for another to lead 24-10 at intermission.
“We had a kickoff return for a touchdown, had two turnovers that gave Houston a very, very short field,” Houston said. “You give up 130 yards of offense in the first half and you’re down 24-10. You knew you outplayed them in the first half, it was just the turnover and the special teams play right there.”
ECU is back home on Thursday to face South Florida.