HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Mustangs gave Saturday night’s game to Southern Miss, literally. SMU’s four turnovers led to 14 points for the Golden Eagles who went on to win the game 28-7.
“That’s a big turnover, and if you look at it, it’s a 14-point swing,” head coach Phil Bennett said.
The game had an ominous start, and didn’t get much better for SMU.
On the Mustangs’ first drive of the game, quarterback Justin Willis threw a deep ball that was intercepted in the end zone by Southern Miss’ LeVance Richmond and stopped a promising opening drive.
SMU returned the favor when linebacker Will Bonilla intercepted Stephen Reaves’ pass at the Mustangs’ 15-yard line.
The Golden Eagles and the Mustangs traded punts when SMU had its first trip to the red zone. With the ball sitting on the 3-yard line, Willis handed the ball off to Cedrick Dorsey who pushed forward to the 2-yard line, but fumbled the ball and gave it back to Southern Miss.
This time the Golden Eagles capitalized on the turnover, driving the ball 98 yards in just 12 plays giving Southern Miss a lead they would never relinquish. On the following drive, the turnover bug bit the Mustangs once again.
On just the fourth play of the drive Willis tried to do too much while under pressure in the pocket. Willis was hit from behind by Matthew Chatelain and fumbled the ball. Southern Miss recovered and turned it into another touchdown drive.
The Mustangs’ final scoring chance of the half came down to a 52-yard field goal attempt for Thomas Morstead. With just two seconds left on the clock Morstead’s kick had the distance, but sailed wide right and the Mustangs went into the locker room down 21-0.
The third quarter was a defensive struggle as neither team could get any offense going.
The Mustangs had the best chance of the quarter getting the ball as far as the Southern Miss 11-yard line. But an eight-yard loss on third down set up Morstead’s second field goal attempt of the night, this time from 36 yards out.
Once again Morstead had enough leg, it was just wide left and no good.
SMU and the Golden Eagles then traded touchdowns off missed field goals.
After Southern Miss’ drive to increase their lead to 28-0, the Golden Eagles got the ball back to attempt a 42-yard field goal. SMU’s Damon Hurst didn’t give the play a chance. Hurst broke through the Southern Miss offensive line and got his hand on the kick and blocked it.
The Mustangs rode that momentum to the end zone. A seven-play, 75-yard drive was capped off by a 16-yard touchdown pass from Willis to DeMyron Martin to finally get the Mustangs on the board, but trailing 28-7 with just under seven minutes left in the game.
Southern Miss played keep-away and the Mustangs could not get anything going on their last drive and the Mustangs fall to 1-5 on the season and 0-2 in the conference.
Along with the four turnovers the Mustangs were also penalized 10 times for 92 yards and fumbled the ball three other times that SMU was able to retain possession.
