The stakes werent quite what Houston fans were dreaming of in September, but the Cougars still made a major statement with last weeks 36-10 drubbing of a Louisville team that came to campus ranked third in the country and openly talking about a spot in the four-team college football playoff.After silencing that talk with their dominant performance, the Cougars were left to ponder what-might-have been. If they had made it to last weekend undefeated, they, too, would have had playoff hopes on their minds. But losses to Navy and Southern Methodist means that the Cougars will be spending their January elsewhere.Still, what better way to offer a state of the program address than with a dominating performance on national television.Im proud of our guys, Houston coach Tom Herman said. Im proud of our seniors to be able to say that in their junior and senior year, they are 6-0 against top 25 teams, 3-0 against top 10 teams and 2-0 against top 3 teams.They are the most winning class in the history of this great university -- theres a lot to be proud of there.The 18th-ranked Cougars (9-2, 5-2 AAC) now wind up their regular season with a trip to Memphis to take on the Tigers (7-4, 4-3). Kickoff is at noon ET Friday at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis with ABC telecasting the action.This marks the final regular-season game for the seniors Herman has been so eager to praise. While some will get looks at the next level, its still a day likely to be fraught with emotion.I cant believe it, senior linebacker Steven Taylor said. These years go by so quick. I was a redshirt freshman. Ive been here five years and its unbelievable how time flies. Im excited. I cant wait to go out there and ball out with my boys. Were going to come hard and prepare hard as well.Going on the road puts the game in a different light for the Cougars. Both of their losses have come away from home. Navy won 46-40 and SMU pulled a real shocker with a 38-16 romp in Dallas.We havent played as well as we liked on the road at times, Herman said., We have got to take the things that we learned the last couple of weeks in our wins and make sure they translate over to road games as well.Memphis is coming off a big 34-7 win on the road over Cincinnati.To get that seventh win is big and now it sets up a big matchup for us with a great Houston team coming in, Tigers coach Mike Norvell said. Its going to be a lot of fun here in Memphis Friday.The game could become an offensive show. It will feature the AACs top two passers in Houstons Greg Ward and Riley Ferguson of Memphis.A senior, Ward has had to contend with nagging injuries since early in the season but still has completed 67.1 percent of his passes for 284.1 yards a game. He has 18 touchdown passes against only eight interceptions.Ferguson, a junior, has completed passes at a 63.4 percent rate for 265.2 yards a game and has 24 touchdown passes against only nine picks.Houstons Linell Bonner is No. 3 in the conference in receptions per game with 76 for 841 yard and two touchdowns in 10 games. Anthony Miller of Memphis is No. 5 in receptions per game with 84 catches in 11 games and No. 3 in receiving yards per game with 1,114 yards.Ward also has rushed for 453 yards in his 10 appearances, which is a team high. He is the second-winningest quarterback in school history, trailing only Case Keenum, but his .871 winning percentage is the best-ever at the school.Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver is coming off a huge performance in the rout of Louisville. Going against Heisman favorite Lamar Jackson, it was Oliver who was the dominant force, finishing with two of the teams 11 sacks, three tackles for loss, a forced fumble and two passes broken up. 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Wellington have made it four straight A-League pre-season victories, with Roy Krishnas second-half strike securing a 2-1 win over Central Coast on Saturday in Nelson.Kosta Barbarouses scored from the spot in the 22nd minute to put the Phoenix ahead, but the Mariners drew level through Connor Pain on the half-hour.Central Coast went down to 10 men before the break when Jaques Faty was given a straight red for bringing down Krishna, who was through on goal.The Fijian strikers header early in the second half secured the eighth win in nine pre-season matches for Wellington.With several Phoenix players expected to be on All Whites team duty next week, Alex Rodriguez and Matthew Ridenton started in midfield, while recruits Jacob Tratt and Adam Parkhouse began at the back.On 20 minutes, a flowing Phoenix move found Barbarouses on the edge of the area. His cross struck the arm of Michael Neill and the referee pointed to the spot and Wellingtons marquee man put the Phoenix 1-0 up.But just a minute later, Pain was slipped through and slotted his shot beyond the reach of Moss to make it 1-1.With the Mariners down to 10, Phoenix ttook advantage in the second half as Krishna headed in from a Barbarouses cross to make it 2-1.dddddddddddd.Wellington held on for victory, but the disjointed performance, particularly against 10 men, frustrated coach Ernie Merrick.Im pleased with the result, but I always believe that the performance is more important in pre-season and I was disappointed with a few aspects of our game, Merrick said.The passing from the midfield going forward lacked cohesion and we made too many errors.The Mariners played on the counter attack after going a man down and that forced us to change our game, which ended up throwing us off somewhat.The forward passing was not to the quality I expect and we were overrun in midfield.Its something we will have to work on before the first game of the season as we will be missing key players to international duty.Having won eight of nine matches in pre-season is encouraging however and gives us confidence going in to our first game on October 8 against Melbourne City. 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