Sports - Colleges - Southern Miss

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

Golden Eagles romp over Tulane

HATTIESBURG — Martevious Young threw a pair of touchdowns and Southern Miss scored in all three phases of the game en route to a 43-6 win against Tulane Saturday before an announced M.M. Roberts homecoming crowd of 30,541.

The Golden Eagles, now 5-3 overall, moved into a three-way tie in Conference USA’s East Division at 3-1 with East Carolina and Marshall. Tulane dropped to 2-5 and 0-4.

“We scored in all three phases, but we didn’t score enough offensively,’’ Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora said. “I think the defense did a heck of a job.

“Offensively, it was frustrating. We never punted but we left points on the field (five of eight in the red zone.’’

After forcing a Tulane punt to open the game, Southern Miss needed nine plays to cover 56 yards to take a 7-0 lead it would never relinquish.

Young threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to DeAndre Brown at the 5:25 mark of the first quarter.

After misfiring on a 23-yard field goal by Justin Estes, the Southern Miss defense when Jamie Collins returned a Jeremy Williams fumble 16-yards for a 14-0 lead.

The score was forced by Justin Wilson, allowing Collins to scoop up the ball and run untouched into the end zone with 6:16 left in the first half.

But the non-offensive scoring was limited to the defense.

With 38 seconds left in the opening half, the special teams scored when C.J. Bailey blocked a 28-yard field goal attempt by Ross Thevenot. Andre Watson then returned the ball 77 yards to give Southern Miss a 20-0 lead.

“It was encouraging to see C.J. come off the edge and block the kick,’’ Fedora said. “Then Dre (Watson) took it the distance. That was the backbreaker.’’

The return marked the first touchdown off a blocked field goal since Rod Davis of Gulfport raced 61 yards against South Florida in 2003.

The extra point was wide left, marking the third time in the last five attempts dating back to a 36-13 win against Memphis that the attempt failed.

“I’m not going to blame anyone until I (watch film),’’ Fedora said. “We will get it straightened out.’’

Southern Miss opened the third quarter with an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive that took 6:10 off the clock.

The drive ended with Young throwing six yards to Brown.