Houston Cougars defeat Rice Owls, win Bayou Bucket

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - D'Eriq King accounted for four touchdowns, including three in the second half when Houston rallied to beat Rice 45-27 on Saturday.

Trailing 27-24 midway through the third quarter, King ran 4 yards for a touchdown then threw scoring passes of 57 yards to Marquez Stevenson and 18 yards to Courtney Lark. Patrick Carr added a 37-yard touchdown run late in the Cougars' season opener against their city rivals.

King connected with Lark for 40 yards and a score to tie the game at 17-all before Shawn Stankavage threw a 1-yard pass to Brendan Harmon with 15 seconds left in the half to give the Owls (1-1) a 24-17 lead.

King finished 17-of-24 passing for 320 yards and added 33 yards rushing. Stevenson, who missed last season with an injury, had 107 yards receiving and 60 yards rushing, 51 coming on an end-around for a score.

Stankavage was 20 of 31 for 207 yards with three TDs and an interception.

Junior defensive tackle Ed Oliver, who last year became the first underclassmen to win the Outland Trophy, led Houston with 13 tackles, including 3.5 for loss, giving him 43 for loss in his 26-game career. Isaiah Chambers added three sacks.

BC-FBC--Houston-Rice Stats

Houston 45, Rice 27

HOU_FG Novikoff 45, 13:19

RICE_Myers 29 pass from Stankavage (Fox kick), 1:17

RICE_FG Fox 44, 10:10

HOU_Stevenson 51 run (kick failed), 7:57

RICE_Bull 2 pass from Stankavage (Fox kick), 4:53

HOU_Lark 40 pass from King (B.Smith pass from King), 3:34

RICE_Harmon 1 pass from Stankavage (Fox kick), :15

RICE_FG Tobola 28, 8:00

HOU_King 4 run (Witherspoon kick), 7:04

HOU_Stevenson 57 pass from King (Witherspoon kick), 2:37

HOU_Lark 18 pass from King (Witherspoon kick), 13:04

HOU_Carr 37 run (Witherspoon kick), 3:08

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RUSHING_Houston, Carr 8-74, Stevenson 2-60, Car 7-41, King 7-32, B.Smith 4-23, T.Williams 7-17, Justice 1-10. Rice, Esukpa 17-81, Au.Walter 18-53, As.Walter 4-18, Stankavage 4-(minus 5).

PASSING_Houston, King 17-24-0-320, B.Smith 1-1-0-0. Rice, Tyner 4-8-0-88, Stankavage 20-31-1-204, (Team) 0-2-0-0.

RECEIVING_Houston, Stevenson 5-107, Lark 4-82, Corbin 3-93, Brooker 2-15, B.Smith 1-25, J.Singleton 1-5, King 1-0, T.Mark 1-(minus 7). Rice, Trammell 7-62, Cephus 5-95, Au.Walter 4-70, Harmon 3-11, Myers 1-29, As.Walter 1-15, Gentosi 1-4, Cardwell 1-4, Bull 1-2.

MISSED FIELD GOALS_Houston, Novikoff 35. Rice, Fox 48, Fox 50, Tobola 47