Trick? Or Treat?
UConn tops AAC West leading Cougs on Halloween
Latrell Martin caught a pair of TD's, but ultimately his Cougs were lying on their backs.
Halloween has a tendency for bringing us surprises. Tricks or treats, if you will.
For example, in 2004 Pittsburgh beat New England and snapped their 21 game win streak. Surprising to New England fans, sure, but it led to New England winning the Super Bowl.
Anyway, now that I've gone off my tangent, I can preface this by saying if UConn continues to play like they did against Houston on Halloween, they could be partying like the Patriots come December when they hit a bowl game.
But was UConn's performance today a trick or a surprise for what's to come? Only time will tell...
UConn, despite nearly blowing a 20-7 lead in the third quarter, thoroughly dominated Houston on both ends, through 3 quarters that is.
This showed in the first half, as Houston started the game with 2 straight punts and a missed field goal, gaining less than 50 yards in that frame.
Meanwhile, on the strength of some of the best running of the season from
Max DeLorenzo, UConn jumped out to a 14-0 lead, and Maxy picked up 41 yards very quickly, and another 19 through the air.
Houston (and guard Carter Wall) knew they were in trouble when down 20-7.
With Houston's backs to the wall, they turned to their only option left offensively: The Out route.
With some great success,
John O'Korn drove his troops downfield and hit
Latrell Martin for a 13 yard TD.
DeLorenzo, on 4 more carries, gained 22 yards, and
Bryant Shirreffs connected with
Thomas Lucas for a 16 yard gain and a pair of 9 yard runs to get a field goal before the half, and another right after it.
UConn had a 20-7 lead, and were cruising. Unfortunately, the UConn defense budged and Houston trimmed the deficit to 10, as O'Korn hit
Deontay Greenberry for 18,
Greg Ward Jr. for 16 and
John Leday for 11 before the drive stalled out inside the red zone.
But once again, UConn responded and was on their way to putting game a little further out of reach.
Arkeel Newsome returned the kick to the 45,
Noel Thomas had a 30 yard grab, another 12 yard snare and left the rest to, guess who, DeLorenzo.
Maxy had the corner, had his men beat, all except one, and was being pursued by
Adrian McDonald. DeLorenzo wasn't going to make it, but tried to dive and get in anyhow.
Instead, McDonald made contact with Max and jarred the ball loose. Which sent the ball flying............
.........out of the end zone. Turnover.
Oh, no. It's Tulsa all over again.
Except it wasn't.
Cole Ormsby, giving
Kenton Adeyemi a breather, sacked O'Korn twice in UConn territory and forced the Cougs to punt.
Crisis averted.
After 4 drives ending in punts in a row, Houston broke through as O'Korn hit Martin to pull within 3 with 2 minutes to go.
Uh-oh.
UConn again got in the red zone, but DeLorenzo got
decked by Cameron Malveaux and lost the ball again.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
The one positive out of this? The ball was recovered by
Trevon Stewart, but at the 1 yard line. So Houston had a buck 30 in clock, no timeouts and 99 yards to victory.
Jordan Floyd started by tipping an O'Korn pass as he was drilled, and
Cameron Stapleton finally got to O'Korn and sacked him for a safety 2 plays later.
Whew.
UConn was able to sit on it and kill the clock, but it may have been a little close in that 4th.
Though we can not ignore the fact that Maxy did his best running of the year, and UConn (now 4-4) dominated the first 3 quarters.
Trick? Or Treat?
Only the next 4 weeks will tell.
| Connecticut Huskies at Houston Cougars |
| Oct 31, 2015 | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | SCORE |
| Connecticut Huskies (4-4, 2-3) | 7 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 22 |
| Houston Cougars (5-3, 4-1) | 0 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 17 |
| Scoring Summary |
| FIRST QUARTER SCORING | CONN | HOU |
| :29 | (CONN) Marriner 3 rush (Puyol kick) | 7 | 0 |
| SECOND QUARTER SCORING | CONN | HOU |
| 4:29 | (CONN) DeLorenzo 1 rush (Puyol kick) | 14 | 0 |
| 3:27 | (HOU) O'Korn 13 pass Martin (Bullard kick) | 14 | 7 |
| :49 | (CONN) Puyol 21 FG | 17 | 7 |
| THIRD QUARTER SCORING | CONN | HOU |
| 4:41 | (CONN) Puyol 21 FG | 20 | 7 |
| 2:36 | (HOU) Bullard 29 FG | 20 | 10 |
| FOURTH QUARTER SCORING | CONN | HOU |
| 2:19 | (HOU) O'Korn 6 pass Martin (Bullard kick) | 20 | 17 |
| 1:15 | (HOU) Team Safety | 22 | 17 |
| Connecticut Huskies | | PASSING | C/A | YDS | TD | INT | | Bryant Shirreffs | 19-24 | 263 | 0 | 0 | | RUSHING | ATT | YDS | AVG | TD | | Max DeLorenzo | 26 | 118 | 4.5 | 1 | | Bryant Shirreffs | 10 | 38 | 3.8 | 0 | | Josh Marriner | 8 | 17 | 2.1 | 1 | | RECEIVING | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | | Thomas Lucas | 5 | 111 | 22.2 | 0 | | Noel Thomas | 5 | 66 | 13.2 | 0 | | Kamal Abrams | 3 | 39 | 13.0 | 0 | | DEFENSE | TACK | SACK | INT | TD | | Junior Joseph | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Cameron Stapleton | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | | Cole Ormsby | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| | Houston Cougars | | PASSING | C/A | YDS | TD | INT | | John O'Korn | 27-48 | 322 | 2 | 0 | | RUSHING | ATT | YDS | AVG | TD | | Kenneth Farrow | 3 | 17 | 5.6 | 0 | | RECEIVING | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | | Greg Ward, Jr. | 7 | 66 | 9.4 | 0 | | Latrell Martin | 6 | 64 | 10.6 | 2 | | Deontay Greenberry | 4 | 84 | 21.0 | 0 | | DEFENSE | TACK | SACK | INT | TD | | Lee Hightower | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Adrian McDonald | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Cameron Malveaux | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
|
Despite two fumbles in the red zone, Maxy did his best running of the year on Halloween.