University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Rallies To Top Virginia, 37-34
9/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 19, 2009
HATTIESBURG, MISS. (AP) Southern Mississippi, after fumbling and bumbling its way through the first half, returned to form late in the game to stretch its winning streak with a 37-34 victory over struggling Virginia on Saturday.
The Golden Eagles, after trailing by 17, scored two unanswered fourth-quarter touchdowns to make it eight straight, second only to Florida's 13-game mark.
"I think it says a lot about our team," Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora said. "I knew that we would not quit. I knew we would play all the way to the end."
The Southern Miss offense was averaging 507.5 yards per game coming into the game, but managed only 344 yards against Virginia, despite Damion Fletcher rushing for 115 and Tory Harrison for 101. Fletcher scored on a 6-yard run in the first quarter and a 10-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Harrison capped Southern Miss' rally with a 57-yard touchdown run.
Austin Davis was 14 of 26 for 130 yards and a 2-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Hanks in the third quarter. He was sacked twice.
Freddie Parham sparked the Golden Eagles' rally in the third quarter when he took a kick 3 yards deep in the end zone and sprinted the length of the field to cut Virginia's lead to 34-24.
"Clearly that was a momentum changer," Virginia coach Al Groh said. "I saw it coming. We didn't fit on the blocks properly at a number of spots."
Southern Miss' unanswered scores by Fletcher and Harrison did the rest.
The Cavaliers, among the worst offensive teams in the nation this season, had 390 yards against the Golden Eagles.
Southern Miss (3-0), a 16 1/2-point favorite, trailed until the fourth quarter, with fumbles and penalties allowing the Cavaliers to surge to a 13-0 lead after one quarter.
Virginia (0-3) scored on a 69-yard pass from Jameel Sewell to Tim Smith and had two field goals, thanks to Southern Miss fumbles.
A roughing the passer call on Southern Miss set up 4-yard TD run by Sewell to give the Cavaliers a 27-10 lead at halftime.
"I do not know how we could have put ourselves in a worse situation than we did in the first half with balls on the ground, dropped passes," Fedora said. "You name it, we did it. At halftime, there was a lot of yelling and screaming."
Sewell was 24 of 46 for 312 yards and two touchdowns, hitting Kris Burd for a 29-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Sewell ran for 23 yards and two scores -- a 4-yarder in the second quarter and a 1-yard run in the third.
Southern Miss is 4-2 in home games against BCS conference opponents since 2001. The last big conference school in town was North Carolina State, which fell 37-17 in 2006.
