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Naval Academy Athletics

Schedule

Maquel Haywood
38
Winner ECU ECU 7-4 , 5-2
35
Navy NAVY 2-8 , 2-5
Winner
ECU ECU
7-4 , 5-2
38
Final
35
Navy NAVY
2-8 , 2-5
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
ECU ECU 14 10 0 14 38
NAVY Navy 7 14 0 14 35

Game Recap: Football |

Daffer's long FG as time expires gets ECU past Navy 38-35

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) Owen Daffer drilled a 54-yard field goal as time expired to give East Carolina (7-4, 5-2 in the American) a 38-35 victory over Navy on Saturday night in front of 28,001 fans at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Senior Day for the Midshipmen. Daffer's previous career-long was 39 yards.

Maquel Haywood scored on a 98-yard kickoff return that gave Navy (2-8, 2-5 American) a 35-27 lead with 8:33 remaining. It was Navy's first kickoff return for a touchdown since 2012 when Gee Gee Greene had a 95-yard kickoff return against Arizona State and tied for the longest kickoff return in school history.

East Carolina's Holton Ahlers answered with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Snead and then hit C.J. Johnson with a two-point conversion to tie the game at 35 with 5:01 left.

Navy quickly drove back down the field, but on third-and-seven from the ECU 44-yard line with a little over two minutes to play, quarterback Tai Lavatai hit wide receiver Mark Walker with a pass for seven yards that would have given Navy a first down.  East Carolina's Ja'Quan McMillan closed hard on the play and punched the ball out of Walker's hands and, although it went out of bounds, Navy lost five yards and the first down forcing a punt.

East Carolina took over at its own 20 with 1:11 left and after a two-yard run by Keaton Mitchell, Ahlers hit Snead with a 46-yard pass down to the Navy 32 and set up Daffer's heroics.

Ahlers was 27-of-32 passing for 405 yards and threw three touchdown passes. Mitchell carried the ball 18 times for 94 yards and had a 10-yard touchdown run for the Pirates.

Tai Lavatai threw a pair of short-yard touchdown passes for Navy. Carlinos Acie had 155 yards rushing that included a 90-yard touchdown run.  Acie's 155-yards rushing was the most by a Navy slot back since Shun White rushed for a school record 348 yards against Towson in 2008 and the 90-yard touchdown run was the fifth longest run in school history and was the longest since Malcolm Perry's 92-yard touchdown run against SMU in 2017.

It also marked the first time in Navy history that the Mids had two 90-yard scoring plays in the same game.

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