WEST POINT, N.Y. – East Carolina didn’t pull off an upset of unbeaten and nationally-ranked Army on Saturday, but an inspired second-half effort could provide a shot of confidence the Pirates need for the remainder of the season.
Coming off an open date and looking to bounce back from a lopsided loss at Charlotte two weeks ago, ECU dug a deep hole against the efficient Black Knights before finding its rhythm in an eventual 45-28 defeat. The Pirates trailed 31-0 on a beautiful fall afternoon at Michie Stadium but struck for four second-half touchdowns against a team that had not surrendered more than 14 points in a game all season.
Still, the Pirates suffered their fourth loss in the last five games and now stand 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the American Athletic Conference heading into a home date with Temple next Saturday. In picking up its first-ever win in the nine-game series, Army not only extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 11 games but remained undefeated at 7-0 overall and 6-0 in the AAC.
The Black Knights, spearheaded by quarterback Bryson Daily, have now scored at least 40 points in four straight games and won all seven of their games this year by double digits.
“We just couldn’t get anything going in the first half,” sixth-year head coach Mike Houston said. “You’re playing a team — they haven’t had a competitive game all year. They’ve just rolled through people; they did us a little bit too. If we could have got something going offensively, I sure think it would have made a difference.”
With Michigan State transfer Katin Houser making his first start, ECU managed just 95 total yards in the opening half, averaging just 3.65 yards per play. Houser completed 10 of 17 passes for 60 yards in the first half with one interception – the lone turnover of the game – but was plagued by two key drops on third down on the first two possessions.
Houser relied more on the vertical passing game and found openings in the middle of the field in the second half, finishing 24 of 38 for 282 yards with touchdown passes to Chase Sowell, Winston Wright Jr. and Anthony Smith. He also added his third career rushing TD and first as a Pirate.
Sowell matched a career high with seven catches and set a personal best with 138 receiving yards, highlighted by a career-long 53-yard catch and run for ECU’s first touchdown. Wright finished with four catches for 57 yards.
The Pirates never got closer than the final margin but exhibited more fight than a second half than unraveled at Charlotte. Houser replaced Jake Garcia on the final drive in the first half of that game and stepped into the starter’s role this week, seemingly gaining confidence with more repetitions.
“The second half looked completely different than the first half,” Houston said. “The interception was a bad one. … He just didn’t make a good throw right there. I thought he came back in the second half and made a ton of good throws, showed some composure. Some of the mistakes he made in the first half, he didn’t make in the second half.”
But Daily and the time-consuming, ball-control Black Knights posed too much to overcome.
The recipe that paved the way to Army’s six dominant wins to start the season continued against the Pirates. The Black Knights, one of only two teams that have not trailed in game all season (Indiana is the other), found the end zone on their opening drive for the seventh straight game, then tacked on scores on each of the next three possessions on the way to a 31-0 lead.
Daily, a physical and versatile quarterback, surprised the Pirates with a 37-yard pass on the opening play and capped the drive with a 13-yard scoring toss to Miles Stewart.
That would be the first of six touchdowns for Daily, who tied a school record with five rushing scores and has been responsible for 26 touchdowns this season, surpassing the school record of 23.
He scored on runs of 1, 17 and 31 yards in the first half and added TD runs of 3 and 4 yards in the second half, giving him a single-season school record of 19 rushing touchdowns with at least five more games to play.
Daily finished with career bests of 31 carries for 174 yards – his fifth-straight 100-yard game — and completed 7 of 10 passes for 147 yards. The nation’s leading rushing offense churned out 295 yards on the ground — below its average of 369.8 yards per game – but the Black Knights eclipsed 400 total yards for the seventh straight game with 442.
“Bryson Daily is a good player now,” Houston said. “That team has a shot. We played the 2019 Navy team, and they were very dynamic at quarterback. He’s different, but this football team is solid top to bottom. It will take a really good team to knock them off.”