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Saturday, Oct. 7 7:00pm ET Kelly totals five TDs for Golden Eagles | |||
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BOX SCORE
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) -- Southern Mississippi finally allowed a touchdown. Jeff Kelly made sure it didn't matter. Kelly had three short TD runs and passed for two more scores as Southern Miss (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today, No. 17 AP) beat South Florida 41-7 on Saturday night. South Florida's Marquel Blackwell threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Chris Iskra late in the third quarter, the first TD allowed by Southern Mississippi (4-1) since the third quarter of its season-opening loss to Tennessee. "Again, it was a nice effort by our defense, and offensively we did some things better than we had been," coach Jeff Bower said. "I am proud of our team, we got ourselves ready to play." South Florida, in its second year of a two-year transition from Division I-AA to I-A, is 3-3. The loss was the Bulls' worst in the four-year history of the program. "Their defense is very strong, I don't know what we could have done with them," South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said. "I was hoping we could score 14 points and play a great defensive game and have a chance. But obviously that didn't happen." Derrick Nix, the Southern Miss back who has rushed for over 1,000 yards the past two seasons, did not play because of a sprained ankle. "Scoring 41 points was all right, but we had opportunities to put up more," Kelly said. "Everyone on offense knew that with Derrick out we had to pick it up some. It was a good effort but we can still do better." Kelly's 1-yard run gave the Golden Eagles a 10-0 lead in the second quarter, and he made it 17-0 with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Leroy Handy. Brant Hanna opened the scoring with a 42-yard field goal, and hit a 25-yarder that made it 20-0 six minutes into the third quarter. Kelly added scoring runs of 1 and 2 yards, and completed the Southern Mississippi scoring with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Garner early in the fourth quarter. South Florida avoided the shutout late in the third period, when Marquel Blackwell connected with Chris Iskra on a 19-yard scoring pass. It was the first touchdown allowed by Southern Mississippi since the third quarter of the loss to Tennessee, ending a span of 15 quarters without allowing a touchdown. Kelly finished 18-of-29 for 171 yards, and Handy had eight catches for 82 yards. The Southern Mississippi defense allowed the Bulls, who will become full-fledged members of Conference USA in 2003, just 18 yards rushing and only 151 yards of total offense. The Golden Eagles also blocked two punts. "We are not where we need to be just yet," Bower said. "We know that we can be a better team, and that is the objective from week to week." Southern Mississippi travels to Tulane next week. |
ALSO SEE
College Football Scoreboard
South Florida Clubhouse Southern Mississippi Clubhouse | ||
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