Cougars notch emotional victory over Navy
Sophomore QB King helps 26 UH seniors exit TDECU in style
As the rest of the team ran up the tunnel to the locker room, Houston senior linebackers D’Juan Hines and Matthew Adams took one last walk together at TDECU Stadium.
“One last time to take it all in,” Hines said.
D’Eriq King threw for 277 yards and accounted for three touchdowns, including a 61-yard pass to Steven Dunbar for the game-winner early in the fourth quarter, as the Cougars celebrated an emotional senior day with a 24-14 victory over Navy.
Dunbar, one of 26 seniors recognized Friday, finished with eight receptions for 142 yards. He took a pass from King along the right sideline, broke a tackle and sprinted untouched the rest of the way to give the Cougars a 21-14 lead with 14 minutes left.
“We’ve been through a lot with coaching changes and seen (a new stadium built),” Dunbar said. “It was emotional walking out on that field, knowing it’s your last time playing.”
The Cougars closed the regular season at 7-4 and in sole possession of second place in the American Athletic Conference West Division at 5-3. Now the Cougars must wait
until Dec. 3 to learn their bowl destination and opponent. A representative from the Walk-On’s Independence Bowl was at Friday’s game.
For this year’s senior class, it was their 37th victory, one shy of matching the 2016 class for the most in program history. It’s also just the fourth class to qualify for four consecutive bowl appearances.
“A lot of those seniors have given us a lot of good moments,” UH coach Major Applewhite said. “It was good to make sure they took off their pads winners.”
The Cougars received a big lift from the defense, which bottled up Navy’s triple-option attack and allowed no points and 50 rushing yards in the second half. All-America defensive tackle Ed Oliver, a finalist for the Outland and Bronko Nagurski trophies, had a career-high 14 tackles with two sacks and 3½ tackles for loss. Hines added 11 tackles, 2½ for loss.
Navy (6-5, 4-4 AAC), which lost for the fifth time in six games, rushed for 217 yards. The Midshipmen entered the game second nationally in rushing, averaging 360.5 yards. Quarterback Zach Abey, who had more than 1,200 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns, was held to 33 yards and sacked three times.
Navy had five punts and a turnover among six second-half possessions. Alexander Myres sealed the game with an interception at the UH 13-yard line with less than three minutes remaining.
“It was tackle or dive to get what you can get,” Oliver said of the game plan to stop Navy’s triple-option. “We made an adjustment to help us stop the dive. Everybody was locked in on their assignment.”
UH’s defense did not buckle under pressure, surviving a 12-play opening drive by Navy that ended with Bennett Moehring’s 40-yard field-goal attempt sailing wide left. In the second quarter, Navy had the ball at the UH 2-yard line, but Adams stopped Abey for no gain on fourth-and-1.
“Quite an accomplishment for our defense,” Applewhite said.
King, making his third straight start, scored the Cougars’ first two touchdowns on runs of 9 and 2 yards. Since taking over the quarterback job Oct. 28, the sophomore has seven rushing touchdowns.
“We saw (the defense) making plays and wanted to go out there and help them,” said King, who was 21-of-27 passing and added 57 rushing yards.
Linell Bonner, another senior, set up UH’s first touchdown with consecutive catches that covered 34 and 24 yards. He finished with eight receptions for 98 yards before leaving the game late in the third quarter with a chest/shoulder injury on a hit that led to Navy linebacker Taylor Heflin’s ejection for targeting.
UH caught a few breaks as Navy failed to score off a pair of turnovers.
Navy tied the game at 7 on a 12-yard run by Malcolm Perry (game-high 82 rushing yards) and went ahead 14-7 on a 13-yard run by Anthony Gargiulo. The last touchdown was set up by a 40-yard catch by Tyler Carmona on one of only eight passes attempted in the game by the Midship- men.
Oliver, only a sophomore, stood with his family in a pregame ceremony to honor the seniors, a group that included his brother Marcus, an offensive lineman.
“I was always close to that class (of older players),” Ed Oliver said. “Those are my boys. Just seeing them go is a little emotional.”