College Football
D’Eriq King Leads The Houston Cougars By 45-27
The Rice Owls hung on for as long as they could Saturday afternoon against the Houston Cougars. In the end, the Cougars’ quarterback D’Eriq King was too much. A 25 point second half explosion led the University of Houston to a 45-27 win in the Bayou Bucket Bowl.
A 25 and a half point favorite, the Cougars’ offense could find little rhythm and the defense despite Ed Oliver were helpless in containing the Owls. Oliver moved from 11th to 7th on the all-time UH list of career tackles for losses with three in the first 11 minutes of play.
Rice Quarterback Shane Stankavage threw for three first half touchdowns and a 24-17 lead. Rice Fans had not seen a quarterback performance like Stankavage’s since Jackson Tyner and Temi Alaka combined to do it on November 19, 2016. In the end Stankavage could not keep up with Houston’s field general King.
D’Eriq King brings the offense to life
Sitting behind current Philadelphia Eagles Greg Ward Jr., King waited his turn. Now the former Manvel star would be called upon to lead a come-from-behind win in his first college quarterback start. The offense struggled yet still managed 7 yards per play and put up 17 points including a 51 yard reverse by wideout Marquez Stevenson for the score in the first half.
Down seven after a Rice third quarter field goal, King went to work. He engineered scoring drives of 75, 70 and 68 yards. The three drives took King all of a grand total of 3 minutes and 32 seconds to complete. King’s magic nearly doubled the yards per play to 13.
King completed passes to seven different receivers. Stevenson topped the stat sheet with five for 107 and a scored. He tagged on two carries for 60 yards., one of seven different ground gainers to pick up 10 yards or more.
As Rice’s 47 yard field goal attempt sailed wide with 5:37 to play so did their hopes for an upset. D’Eriq King had seen to that.
Photo credit to Student Sports via Flickr
