HOUSTON, TX. -- Stephen Curtis went down with an injury early, but Quez Johnson was still able to lead Florida Atlantic (1-4, 1-2) to their first victory of the season, over Rice 33-16.

This win also marks the first victory of Greg Patterson's very young coaching career.

"This is a great feeling, it's awesome to say you have won a game in div-1 football." Said coach Patterson to reporters after the game.

He also said that Curtis will be good to go next week against UAB. "Curtis suffered a strained pectoral, but he'll be fine, and will be good to go next week, unless anything drasticly changes."

Before the quarterback's injury, he was having a great game. Picking apart the Owl's secondary having 167 passing yards in first quarter and having 190 in total. He also threw for a touchdown and an interception, that touchdown being a big part of his yardage. Halfback Martese Jackson would catch a screen pass and would take it to the house from 77 yards.

Jackson would come mid way though the second and did enough to keep FAU's lead up 3 scores. He only had pass the ball 9 times, completing 6 of those passes for 55 yards. He did have a big part of the team's rushing yards, running for 89 yards off 10 carries.

Curtis wasn't the only injury that occurred for FAU Receiver Marcus Cunningham would hit hard after a catch and it is reported his ribs are broken, he is looking to miss a couple of weeks.

Despite being down by two or more scores for most the game, Rice (2-2, 0-1) did not want to pass the ball. Only passing it 8 times, completing only 3 of passes.

But, when you're averaging 6.2 yards a carry on the ground and your star halfback is averaging nearly 10 yards a carry it would be hard to not run the ball. However, the running game can only do so much and it costed them.

Rice halfback Charles Ross ran for 186 yards and a touchdown off 19 carries.

Mitch Anderson redeemed himself this week, making all four field goals that he kicked. Which gave him player of the game honors.

Anderson would open the game off for FAU with a field goal early in the first. Little bit later in the first, halfback Jackson would catch a pass off of a screen and run in for a 77 yard touchdown.

Anderson would kick his third field goal of the game as time expired at halftime to give his Owls a 16-3 lead entering halftime.

Cre'Von LeBanic would intercept a pass off of a screen play and return it to the house for a 52 yard touchdown within the first 40 seconds of the second half. Rice, however, would fight back scoring 10 unanswered points to bring the score down to 23-13.

But, A touchdown by halfback Antonio Washington mid-way through the fourth quarter would put the game way for Florida Atlantic.

FAU will travel to Legion Field next week to play the UAB Blazers. Which is a very winnable game of for the Owls.