The Florida Gators snapped a five-game losing streak with a 36-7 win against UAB on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin stadium.

The Gators defense, much maligned this season, held the Blazers (7-4) to negative yards rushing in a dominating performance.

Quarterback Feleipe Franks struggled to complete 50 percent of his passes but threw touchdowns to tight ends C’yontai Lewis and DeAndre Goolsby. Lamical Perine added a rushing touchdown and Eddy Pineiro kicked five goals including a 50-yarder.

Florida did it with running and defense, racking up over 200 yards on the ground with Perine (20 carries, 86 yards), Adarius Lemons (11 carries, 89 yards) and Mark Thompson (13 carries, 78 yards) doing the bulk of the damage.

After settling for field goals for the first quarter and a half, the Gators finally found the end zone after Chauncey Gardner returned an interception 42 yards to set up Florida with a first down at the UAB 13. Two plays later Franks connected with Lewis for an 11-yard score.

The Gators blew the game open in the third quarter with a 66-yard scoring drive. Thompson had runs of 17 and 16 yards and Franks had a 17-yard connection to Dre Massey to set up his second touchdown pass — a 13-yarder to Goolsby.

After UAB’s next drive ended with a fumble, Florida went 78 yards on seven plays, six of them rushing, that ended with a 15-yard touchdown run by Perine to make the score 33-0.

The Blazers finally got on the board when quarterback A.J. Erdely hooked up with Xavier Ubosi for a 74-yard touchdown.

The Gators win may have come at a cost as wide receiver Kadarius Toney was struck by a helmet on his knee and did not return. Wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland also appeared to re-aggrevate his ankle injury but was able to return.

Florida (4-6) will host rival Florida State next Saturday at noon. The Gators opted not to reschedule their game with Northern Colorado, which was canceled because of Hurricane Irma. At 5-6 Florida would need help to play in a bowl game based on its APR score.