Houston Outlasts UNT In Apogee Stadium Debut

DENTON, Texas (9/10/11) –  At the opening of the brand-new Apogee Stadium, the Houston Cougars football team pulled away late to take a 48-23 win against the Mean Green in front of the third-largest crowd in North Texas school history on Saturday night.

The Mean Green falls to 0-2 this season, while Houston improves to 2-0. North Texas has lost seven of its last eight home openers and is now 0-1 in its new stadium. Houston has won the last three meetings against North Texas but trails the series, 7-6.

North Texas took a 7-0 lead and then tied the game at 17-17 in the second quarter with a 39-yard field goal. Houston took a 20-17 halftime after nailing a 27-yard field goal with 33 seconds on the clock and then opened the second half with three scores to extend its lead.

Brelan Chancellor had a career game, setting a pair of school records. He set the single-game all-purpose yards school record with 332. He led off the game with a kick-off return of 55 yards and finished with 286, breaking his own single-game school record. He now owns the top three records for single-game kick-off returns.

Case Keenum threw for 458 yards and five total touchdowns, including three touchdown passes in the third quarter to that Houston ahead, 41-17. Justin Johnson caught the first two TD passes for 32 and 17 yards. Keenum went 26-for-41 with a long of 58 yards.

Andrew McNulty capitalized on a first-quarter Keenan fumble and scored NT’s first offensive touchdown. The freshman’s 10-yard touchdown scamper came on the fifth play of his collegiate career.

Houston scored off a field goal, a passing touchdown and then a rushing TD to end the first quarter with a 17-7 lead.

Derek Thompson threw his first career touchdown pass on a five-yard screen to

tight end Andrew Power, and Zach Olen hit a field goal to tie the game for the Mean Green in the second quarter.

 

After the Mean Green was shutout in the third quarter, Lance Dunbar rushed into the endzone from five yards out to give North Texas its only score in the second half. The touchdown tied him with Patrick Cobbs for the most career touchdowns in school history at 38. Dunbar finished with 62 rushing yards.

Houston posted 690 total yards, which is an all-time opponent high. North Texas was held to 290 total yards.

The attendance call of 28,075 ranks as the third-largest crowd to ever see a North Texas on-campus home game. The school attendance record is 29,437 set in a 52-14 win over Baylor in 2003.

North Texas returns to action on September 17 when it faces Alabama on the road.

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