Rice Game Notes
10/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 16, 2010
Recap | Final Stats | Quotes
- Rice scored late and held on fourth down when Houston QB David Piland fumbled with the Cougars facing fourth-and-one from the Rice 37 with less than two minutes to play. With the 34-31 win, Rice won back the Bayou Bucket presented by State Farm.
- The Owls' 34 points was the most by a Rice team since beating Western Michigan 38-21 in the 2008 Texas Bowl.
- Rice captains for the Houston game were Travis Bradshaw, Justin Hill, Brandon Long and Scott Mitchell. Houston won the pregame coin toss, elected to receive and defend the north goal of Rice Stadium. first career
- After an interception on Houston's third play from scrimmage, game captain Justin Hill picked off a Cougar pass, returning the interception 25 yards to the UH 5. On fourth-and-one, Jeremy Eddington scored his second career touchdown.
- Hill's first career interception was the Owls' third of the year. The pick stopped the Cougars' first drive marking the fifth time in seven games (third straight contest) Rice has held an opponent scoreless on its first drive. Hill also had two tackles and a pass breakup.
- Rice scored a touchdown on its opening drive for the second straight week and now has scored on its first possession in five of seven games this season.
- Luke Willson caught his second touchdown pass of the season, a 29-yarder from Nick Fanuzzi.
- Red-shirt freshman linebacker Michael Kutzler made his Rice debut during a first-quarter kickoff return by the Owls. He became the seventh walkon to play this season for Rice.
- Rice converted a second, fourth-and-goal from the one with a Turner Petersen dive into the end zone that gave Rice a 20-7 lead with 11:10 to play in the first half. The Owls would later fail to convert a fourth-and-one in the third quarter and are now 7-of-9 on fourth-down conversions. The Owls entered the game tied for 12th nationally in fourth-down conversions.
- Petersen's touchdown run capped a 15-play, 75-yard drive that consumed 7:07 of time. The scoring drive was the longest by Rice this season in terms of plays and time of possession.
- Randy Kitchens' 59-yard touchdown reception with 6:23 to play in the first half put the Owls up 27-7. The play marked Kitchens' longest career reception. It was his first TD catch of the year. He caught a 47-yard scoring strike against Texas in the opener.
- Kyle Martens averages 49.8 yards on four punts. He had his fifth punt of the season downed inside the 10 - a 61-yarder the Owls got to right in front of the goal-line.
- Taylor Dupree had a career-long 33 yard reception in the third quarter.
- Vance McDonald caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from Nick Fanuzzi with 4:24 to play. The TD reception marked McDonald's third touchdown catch in the last two games. Fanuzzi has completed three touchdown passes in each of the past two weeks.
Players Mentioned
SAF
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WR
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RB
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QB
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LB
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DB
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LB
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DS
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P
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TE
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OL
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WR
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TE
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