King part of 7 TDs as Houston saddles No. 21 USF with 1st loss
HOUSTON — D’Eriq King had a hand in a careerhigh seven touchdowns, throwing for 419 yards and five scores and running for 134 yards and two more touchdowns in Houston’s 57-36 victory over No. 21 and previously unbeaten South Florida on Saturday.
King threw touchdown passes of 15, 38, 30, 52 and 27 yards and had scoring runs of 47 and 36 yards. He finished 28 of 41 passing. The seven total touchdowns set a career high.
Marquez Stevenson caught six passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns, Jeremy Singleton had five receptions for 125 yards and a touchdown and Courtney Lark caught four passes for 85 yards before exiting early in the fourth quarter with an injury. Houston (7-1, 4-0 American) won its fifth straight, totaling a seasonhigh 684 yards of offense.
Johnny Ford rushed for 106 yards and two touchdowns, and Jordan Cronkrite rushed for 73 yards and a touchdown to lead USF (7-1, 3-1), which saw its eight-game winning streak snapped. Blake Barnett finished 26 of 39 passing for 263 yards and a touchdown.
After a safety on King for intentional grounding in the end zone, USF cut the lead to 28-26 on a 23-yard field goal by Coby Weiss with 10:47 remaining in the third quarter, but the Bulls would not get any closer.
King responded by breaking four tackles up the middle, spinning out of the final tackle, on fourth-and-7 for the 36-yard touchdown run to give Houston a 35-26 lead with 8:25 remaining in the third.
After USF cut the lead to six with a field goal, King hit Jeremy Singleton for a 52-yard touchdown pass before converting on a twopoint conversion pass from Bryson Smith to Singleton to up the lead to 43-29 with 2:43 left in the third.
USF cut the lead in half with a 39-yard touchdown pass from Barnett to Deangelo Antoine with 36 seconds left in the third, but Mulbah Car rushed for an 11-yard touchdown a minute into the fourth to up the lead back to 14.
King found Raelon Singleton for a 27-yard touchdown pass with eight minutes left to up the lead to 21.
The Bulls rebounded from another sluggish start to tie the game twice in the second quarter but were unable to stop King. USF rushed for 176 yards in the first half, but was held to 28 yards in the second half.
The Cougars’ offense led by King was able to beat USF both in the air and on the ground. Houston had six rushers total 265 yards. The defense forced two fourth quarter turnovers to seal the win.
Houston All-American defensive tackle Ed Oliver missed the first game of his career with a bruised right knee. Oliver, who has 51 tackles, 13 1⁄2 tackles for loss and three sacks this season, saw his streak of 32 straight starts end.
CINCINNATI RALLIES: Cole Smith hit a 41-yard field goal as time expired to force overtime and James Wiggins returned an interception 86 yards for a touchdown, lifting Cincinnati (7-1, 3-1) to a 26-20 overtime victory against SMU (3-5, 2-2).
UCONN FALLS: Marquis Young rushed for 148 yards including a fourth-quarter touchdown that gave UMass a 22-17 win over UConn on Saturday.
Young got an assist from teammates who helped shove him into the end zone from 3 yards out to take the lead with 3:39 remaining. On UConn’s next play from scrimmage, Lee Moses intercepted David Pindell’s pass near midfield and the Minutemen (3-5) were able to run out the clock to snap a three-game losing streak.
Pindell threw for only 15 yards on six attempts while rushing for 120 yards, including a 25-yard score as he went over 2,000 yards of total offense this season for the Huskies (1-7), who lost their fifth straight.