Junior receiver Nathaniel Dell had a good birthday, hauling in two touchdowns in UH football’s win over USF on Saturday afternoon at TDECU Stadium. | Sean Thomas/The Cougar

Make it three wins in a row for UH football as the offense moved the ball at will, putting up a season-high 490 yards, to power the Cougars to a 42-27 victory over USF on Saturday afternoon at TDECU Stadium.

Junior receiver Nathaniel Dell started off his birthday with a bang, hauling in a 1-yard touchdown pass on a slant from UH senior quarterback Clayton Tune on the Cougars’ first drive of the game.

Back-to-back USF scores by running back Brian Battie, the first from 13 yards out and the second a run of 20 yards, put the Bulls up 14-7 late in the first quarter.

From there, the Cougars took complete control.

A 7-play, 68-yard drive in the closing seconds of the first quarter ended in freshman running back Stacy Sneed going untouched on an 8-yard touchdown run. This was the first touchdown of Sneed’s collegiate career.

A missed USF field goal set gave the ball back to the UH offense. For the second time in the game, Tune connected with Dell for a touchdown. This one came on a 52-yard bomb to put the Cougars up 21-14.

On its next drive, UH made it three touchdowns in a row as Tune found junior receiver Peyton Sawyer three times for 40 yards, highlighted by a 12-yard score, the first in Sawyer’s college career.

With the pass, Tune became the third UH quarterback to eclipse the 10,000 career passing yards mark.

The Bulls struck first to begin the second half, putting together a 12-play, 65-yard drive that ended with running back Michel Dukes finding the end zone from a yard out.

UH wasted no time answering back, driving 75 yards down the field for a 12-yard touchdown rush on a strong second effort by Sneed to put the Cougars back up double-digits.

A fourth-down sack by sophomore nose guard Chidozie Nwankwo gave UH the ball in USF territory. The Cougars pulled out of their bag of tricks, running a flea-flicker that resulted in a 28-yard touchdown pass from Tune to senior receiver KeSean Carter to put the game to bed.

With the win, UH improved to 5-3 overall and 3-1 in American Athletic Conference play.

Tune finished with a season-high 380 yards through the air to go along with four touchdown passes.

Dell led the Cougars with nine receptions for 112 yards and two touchdowns.

Sneed finished with 60 rushing yards and two scores.

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“UH football rolls past USF for third straight win” was originally posted on The Cougar