Southern Miss Falls at Mississippi State, 38-15

Saturday, September 7

Starkville, MS

2:30 p.m.

Southern Miss

1-1

Mississippi State

2-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Southern Miss

Mississippi State

Southern Miss Falls at Mississippi State, 38-15

9/7/2019 8:40:00 PM | Football

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STARKVILLE, Miss. — Southern Miss did a pretty good job of moving the football between the 20-yard lines Saturday afternoon at Davis Wade Stadium.

The Golden Eagles just had a dickens of a time getting the ball into the end zone against Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs had no such issues, breaking off a 28-0 lead before collecting a 38-15 victory before an announced 55,143.

"They played a good game and deserved that 'W,'" Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson said of State. "But I'm proud of our effort. We fought.

"We've certainly got a lot of mistakes to correct, but I thought our players fought."

So did the Bulldogs, who lost starting quarterback Tommy Stevens and starting running back Kylin Hill late in the first half.

Stevens did not return. Hill did, and Mississippi State (2-0) just turned to the next man up to finish off the game and the Golden Eagles.

The Bulldogs led 7-0 after one quarter, 21-0 at halftime and 28-0 more than 10 minutes into the third quarter.

Southern Miss (1-1) scored late in the third quarter on the first of Jack Abraham's two touchdown passes, a 28-yarder to Jaylond Adams, then got within 31-15 on his second TD toss, a 65-yarder to Jordan Mitchell.

But Abraham, who also turned the ball over three times, ended any slim hopes the Golden Eagles might have harbored with his second interception of the fourth quarter.

The pick and 45-yard return by Martin Emerson set up a door-slamming, 22-yard touchdown run by freshman Lee Witherspoon with 2 minutes, 20 seconds, left in the game.

"I was really proud when there was about five and a half minutes to go, and we were don two scores with the ball," Hopson said. "I thought we had an opportunity to make it extremely interesting.

"But, of course, Mississippi State (got) a big turnover there that kind of sealed the game."

It was State's fifth consecutive victory in the series with its intrastate rival, as the Bulldogs became the first in 13 games to score at least 30 points against the Golden Eagles.

The 5-foot-11, 215-pound Hill became the first in 16 games to rush for more than 100 yards against the Golden Eagles. The junior from Columbus ran for 123 yards and a touchdown.

Southern Miss actually moved the football fairly effectively, picking up 344 total yards to the Bulldogs' 386. Southern Miss had 53 offensive snaps to State's 62, 17 first downs to 21.

Both teams were rough on third down (Southern Miss just 2-of-9; State 3-of-9), but State scored on every one of its four trips into the red zone while Southern Miss failed on its lone visit when freshman Andrew Stein missed on a 36-yard effort in the first quarter.

Stevens hit Osirus Mitchell for a game-opening touchdown for a second consecutive game. Saturday, he found Mitchell from 28 yards out for a 7-0 lead.

Stevens started the game 9-for-9, an effort that included another scoring pass, this one an 11-yarder to Stephen Guidry for a 14-0 lead.

He missed on his last pass before exiting the game for good, finishing 9-of-10 for 105 yards and two touchdowns.

His departure brought in true freshman Garrett Shrader, who led MSU to its final score of the first half, a 13-yard blast through the middle of USM's defense by Nick Gibson for a 21-0 lead just 42 seconds before halftime.

Shrader wound up completing 7-of-11 passes for 71 yards and also rushed nine times for 16 yards.

Abraham completed 18-of-26 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions.

"We were shooting ourselves in the foot," Abraham said. "We were getting behind the sticks and we were hurting ourselves."

Mitchell led the Golden Eagles for the second consecutive week, snagging six passes for 94 yards and a touchdown.

Junior Kevin Perkins led Southern Miss by rushing for 51 yards.

The Golden Eagles remain on the road, traveling to Troy University at 5 p.m. Saturday.