University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Penn State Downs Southern Miss, 38-20
11/3/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Penn State Downs Southern Miss, 38-20
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Despite getting off to a quick start and an early 7-0 lead over the Nittany Lions, Southern Miss could not find a way to stop freshman quarterback Zack Mills, as Penn State reeled off 38 straight points enroute to a 38-20 victory and its third straight victory after opening the season with four straight losses.
While Penn State improved to 3-4, the Golden Eagles suffered their third loss in the last four games and dropped to 4-3.
Part of the third-largest crowd a Golden Eagle team has ever played in front of at 106,158, Southern Miss fans had plenty to cheer about early as the Eagles lost the coin toss for the sixth time in seven games, received the opening kickoff and proceeded to move 23 yards in seven plays before having to punt. The Southern Miss defense limited the Lions to a quick three-and-out opening possession, and the offense then proceeded to go on a two-minute, 58-second, eight-play, 58-yard drive to take a 7-0 lead with 7:47 left in the first period.
Penn State responded with its own nine-play, 80-yard drive to tie the score, and then took the lead for good with short drive that ended with a 32-yard Robbie Gould field goal on the first play of the second period. With those 10 points and the lead in hand, Head Coach Joe Paterno?s team proceeded to add another unanswered 28 points to build an insurmountable 38-7 lead after three periods.
Crucial mistakes again cost the Eagles. A tipped Jeff Kelly pass was intercepted and resulted in Penn State?s go-ahead field goal, and the Lions blocked a Mark Haulman punt and ran it 40 yards for the final touchdown of the day for the winners.
The Golden Eagles fought back with a pair of Dawayne Woods touchdown runs in the final period to cut the final margin to 38-20. Woods finished with his best rushing day of the season as well as the best for a Golden Eagle running back this season with 126 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries. Kelly added to the Southern Miss offense with 26 completions in 47 attempts for 252 yards. The attempt and completions numbers both marked season and career highs for Kelly who threw one (batted) interception, was sacked only twice and scrambled for 26 rushing yards, though the sacks cut that total to three net yards.
Southern Miss actually had 27 first downs to 26 for Penn State and trailed only 443-403 in total offense. Six different Golden Eagles caught at least one pass with LeRoy Handy put together his season and career best numbers with 10 catches for 101 yards.
Other Golden Eagle bright spots included the punting of Mark Haulman, who kicked seven times for a 46.0-yard average that included two punts of over 50 yards, one that resulted in a fair catch and two that were downed inside the 20 yard line.
For Penn State, Mills used his scrambling ability to keep the Eagle defense off balance all afternoon. He finished with 23 completions in 33 attempts, for 280 yards, a pair of touchdowns and was sacked just once. He also scrambled for a team-best 36 rushing yards, including one touchdown run of eight yards that came on a fourth-and-one fake field goal that caught the Golden Eagle defense off guard. Eight other Nittany Lion runners had at least one rush, and Bryant Johnson caught 10 of Mills? passes for 132 yards and a touchdown.
Penn State averaged 5.8 yards on 76 offensive plays, while the Eagles were close behind with 4.9 yards on 83 plays.
After taking the coming week off, Southern Miss will entertain Tulane Nov. 17 in a 2 p.m., game and then close the season with games at East Carolina (Nov. 23), at Alabama (Nov. 30) and at home against TCU (Dec. 7).
