Top 25 UCF Knights Football Games of the 21st Century: No. 21

The UCF Knights began the 21st Century as a young FBS team with no conference to call home. Now, a quarter of the way through it, they sit as a member of one of college football's Power 4 conferences. To mark the occasion, we are counting down the Top 25 UCF Knights Football Games of the 21st Century.

Dec 4, 2014; Greenville, NC, USA; Central Florida Knights quarterback Justin Holman (13) gets ready to throw a pass against the East Carolina Pirates at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The Central Florida Knights defeated the East Carolina Pirates 32-30. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images | James Guillory-Imagn Images

Note: We define the 21st Century as Jan. 1, 2001, to the time of this series' publication.

No. 21: The Hail Perriman (East Carolina, 2014)

Many Knights fans already know how the regular season finale of the 2014 season ended.

Receiver Breshad Perriman slipped behind two Pirates defenders to catch a 51-yard Hail Mary pass from quarterback Justin Holman as time expired, securing UCF a share of the American Athletic Conference Championship.

However, while many remember this one moment, the game that led up to it featured several miscues by the Knights that nearly came back to haunt them.

For one, the end zone was hard to find, particularly in the second half. Aside from the Hail Perriman, UCF scored two other touchdowns, both short runs by running back William Stanback, with one of which coming after an interception by linebacker Terrance Plummer, setting the Knights up at the ECU 16.

This put a majority of the scoring pressure on K Shawn Moffitt, whose six field goal attempts rank as the second-most in a game in program history. He converted on four of them, which ties for the most field goals made in a game in program history, but those misses from 41 and 36 yards out loomed large as the clock ticked down.

After building a 17-point lead with 7:39 left in the third, ECU quarterback Shane Carden marched the Pirates down the field for three fourth-quarter touchdowns to take the lead with 2:17 to go.

The fact that the Hail Perriman happened at all came down to some questionable late-game management by ECU after showing victory formation with 1:47 to go. Between the kneels and an 11-yard sack on fourth down by Jaryl Mamea and Thomas Niles, the Pirates gave UCF 20 free yards, leaving Holman just close enough to the end zone to take a shot at it. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Check out the rest of the list below:

Top 25 UCF Knights Football Games of the 21st Century: No. 25

Top 25 UCF Knights Football Games Of The 21st Century: No. 24

Top 25 UCF Knights Football Games of the 21st Century: No. 23

Top 25 UCF Knights Football Games of the 21st Century: No. 22