UH football had no problems taking care of East Carolina, clicking on both sides of the ball on the way to a 42-3 victory on Saturday afternoon at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina.
After two straight weeks of getting exposed in the secondary, the UH defense flipped the switch against ECU.
The Cougars’ defense didn’t allow the Pirates’ offense to get any rhythm, forcing two three-and-outs to begin the game. The few times ECU did move the ball in the first half, UH came up with big fourth-down stops to get off the field unscathed.
On the other side of the ball, UH senior quarterback Clayton Tune continued to do what he’s done throughout the latter half of the season, picking apart the ECU defense for completion after completion.
After back-to-back big plays to senior receiver KeSean Carter on UH’s first drive of the afternoon, Tune connected with his favorite target, sophomore Nathaniel Dell, for a 12-yard touchdown.
Tune doubled the UH lead early in the second quarter, finding senior tight end Christian Trahan for a 9-yard touchdown to make it 14-0 UH.
Later in the quarter, freshman running back Brandon Campbell made it 21-0 Cougars on a 5-yard touchdown rush. Tune left the game the play prior to the touchdown after suffering an apparent shoulder injury on a first-down run.
Tune was back at quarterback for UH to begin the second half and threw a 26-yard strike while rolling to his right to freshman receiver Matthew Golden to increase the lead to 28-0.
The Cougars next drive ended the exact same way as Tune hit Golden for another 26-yard touchdown.
Senior running back Ta’Zhawn Henry put the exclamation point on the win with a 3-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
ECU’s only points came on a 21-yard field goal midway through the third quarter.
Tune finished with 435 yards and four touchdowns through the air.
Dell led UH with 176 receiving yards followed by Golden who ended with a career-high 127 yards on eight receptions.
With the win, UH improves to 7-4 overall and 5-2 in American Athletic Conference play, keeping the Cougars mathematically alive in the race for a spot in the conference championship game.