University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
UCF
Southern Miss Clips UCF, 19-14, in C-USA Opener
9/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Southern Miss took advantage of four UCF miscues that led to all of its points in a 19-14 Conference USA-opening victory over the Golden Knights, here Tuesday night, in front of 23,540 at the Florida Citrus Bowl.
The Golden Eagles, behind a career-high 184 yards passing from junior quarterback Jeremy Young and 106 yards on the ground from freshman Damion Fletcher, won for the third straight time to improve to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in league play. For Fletcher, it was his third straight 100-plus yard rushing game.
UCF (1-3, 0-1) got a game-high 130 yards rushing from Kevin Smith - who returned to action after serving a one-game suspension. It was Smith, though, who had the opportunity to put the home-standing Golden Knights up midway through the third quarter, but instead coughed up the football deep in Golden Eagle terriotry.
Southern Miss led 10-7 at that point, but the Golden Knights - which had scored on its first possession of the second half - looked like they were going to go up for the first time in the contest. Smith, though, had the ball stripped by LeVance Richmond inside the two-yard line and Tokumbo Abanikanda fell on the ball in the end zone to end a nine-play, 44-yard drive.
The Golden Eagles answered with a 12-play drive of their own that setup senior Darren McCaleb's second field goal of the night, a 30-yarder, to give Southern Miss a 13-7 advantage with 11 seconds to play in the third quarter.
The two teams traded punts with the second one coming from the Eagles' Britt Barefoot that was downed at the UCF one. On the first play of the UCF drive, Golden Knight quarterback Steven Moffett threw a pass straight to Jerome Lyons, who ran the interception four yards for the score. Although the two-point conversion failed, Southern Miss upped its advantage to 19-7.
Moffett, who finished the night 18-of-31 for 191 yards with a touchdown and an interception, hit Javid James from six yards out to cut the score to its final margin with 5:51 left. That was as close as UCF got as Barefoot delivered a 55-yard punt on the Eagles next possession with 4:11 to play.
The Golden Eagle defense stepped up on that final UCF series as they sacked Moffett three times and allowed one pass completion but it was not good enough for a first down. That turned the ball over on downs and enabled the visitors to run out the clock.
In the opening half, Southern Miss thwarted a long UCF drive and then took advantage of a blocked punt late in the opening half to take a 10-0 lead into the break.
Young, who converted 7-of-11 passes in the first half for 110 yards, had his biggest play late in the second quarter as he hit Chris Johnson in the right flat that turned into a 54-yard scoring strike down the sideline. Johnson shook off a tackler after making the catch and then got a critical downfield block from Shawn Nelson to free Johnson for the score to culminate a three-play, 80-yard drive that elapsed just 1:26 in time.
That quick scoring strike countered a Golden Knights drive that went 85 yards on 16 plays and took almost seven minutes. UCF could not capitalize as Michael Torres' 23-yard field goal struck the right upright and bounced off wide.
UCF three plays and had to punt on their next possession. On fourth down, the Golden Knights encountered bad snap that flew over the head of punter Aaron Horne. The ball was eventually picked up by Horne and he attempted the punt but Robert Henderson blocked the try and Golden Eagle Shadler Manning fell on the ball.
Southern Miss then drove to the UCF three in the final minute but settled for a 19-yard field goal from McCaleb.
UCF finally got on the board with a touchdown on its first possession of the second half as Kevin Smith dove over the line from one-yard out to finish a seven-play, 80-yard drive. The score was setup by a pair of completions of 36 and 29 yards from Moffett to Mike Walker and the Golden Knights trailed by just three points.
The Golden Eagles return to action next Tuesday when they travel to face Tulsa in a 6:30 p.m. contest. The game will be aired nationally on ESPN2.
