Southern Mississippi knocks off East Carolina

HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Austin Davis threw for two touchdowns, including a school record 97-yard passing score to DeAndre Brown, to help Southern Mississippi beat East Carolina 21-3 on Saturday.

The Golden Eagles (5-6, 3-4 Conference USA) have won three games in a row after losing five straight games earlier this season. Southern Miss needs win agains Southern Methodist in its final regular season game on Nov. 29th to become bowl eligible.

"We wanted to be the most physical team on the field today," Golden Eagles coach Larry Fedora said. "We felt like if we did that we would be successful, and we were."

Damion Fletcher, Southern MIss' all-time leading rusher, returned from a two week absence due to a hamstring injury to rush for 121 yards on 23 carries and one touchdown.

The loss ended a three game winning streak for the Pirates (6-4, 4-2). East Carolina also failed to clinch at least a share of the C-USA East title and a first ever trip to the league title game.

"We just didn't play well enough to win," East Carolina coach Skip Holtz said. "We never were able to get anything going consistently on offense. You're not going to win many games with just a field goal, especially on the road."

It wasthe seventh win in the last eight games for the Golden Eagles over the Pirates. "We've played hard every game, we just went through a tough stretch," Fedora added. "The last three games we have continued to make play after play when we needed to."

Davis hit Brown one play after Southern MIss' Justin Wilson picked off an East Carolina pass deep in Golden Eagle territory. The scoring play put Southern Miss ahead 21-3 with 11:37 to play.

Minutes earlier, Fletcher dove over from 4-yards out to make it 14-3 on the second play of the final period.

Southern Miss took a 7-3 lead into halftime on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Austin Davis to Leroy Banks wih 4:35 left in the second quarter.

East Carolina took a 3-0 lead early in the period, on a 32-yard field goal by Ben Hartman. Hartman also missed a pair of field goals in the first half.

Davis finished the game 18-of-30 for 239 yards with the two scores and no interceptions. Brown had eight catches for 124 yards. He needs just three more receptions to tie the single season school record with 66 catches.

Wilson picked off another pass late in the game to end any Pirate hopes of a comeback. East Carolina Patrick Pickney had thrown just three interceptions in the Pirates' first nine games.

East Carolina can still clinch the C-USA East title with a win in either of its final two games against Alabama-Birmingham or Texas El-Paso. Southern Mississippi has been to a bowl game for six consecutive seasons, a school record.

After an unusually sluggish start, the Golden Eagles have won three straight games and put themselves in position to extend their postseason streak.

Austin Davis threw for two touchdowns, including a school record 97-yarder to DeAndre Brown, as Southern Miss beat East Carolina 21-3 Saturday afternoon.

The win was the third straight for the Golden Eagles (5-6, 3-4 Conference USA), after they lost five in a row earlier in the season. Southern Miss needs a win over Southern Methodist in its final regular season game on Nov. 29th to become bowl eligible.

"We wanted to be the most physical team on the field today," Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora said. "We felt like if we did that we would be successful, and we were."

Damion Fletcher, Southern Miss' all-time leading rusher, returned from a two week absence due to a hamstring injury and ran for 121 yards on 23 carries and one touchdown.

The loss ended a three game win streak for the Pirates (6-4, 4-2). East Carolina also failed to clinch at least a share of the C-USA East title and a first ever trip to the league title game.

"We just didn't play well enough to win," East Carolina coach Skip Holtz said. "We never were able to get anything going consistently on offense. You're not going to win many games with just a field goal, especially on the road."

It was the seventh win in the last eight games for the Golden Eagles over the Pirates.

"We've played hard every game, we just went through a tough stretch," Fedora added. "The last three games we have continued to make play after play when we needed to."

Davis hit Brown one play after Southern Miss' Justin Wilson picked off an East Carolina pass deep in Golden Eagle territory. The scoring play put Southern Miss ahead 21-3 with 11:37 to play.