Football

UH falls short against Southern Miss

In a familiar theme of this season, the Cougars put forth an admirable effort, but it was not enough.

UH lost 59-41 to Southern Miss. on Saturday at M.M. Roberts Stadium.

With the loss UH has been eliminated from C-USA Championship contention. The Cougars could find themselves finishing below .500, and have just one more chance to become bowl-eligible.

The road has not been friendly to the Cougars (5-6, 4-4 Conference USA), as they fell to 2-3 in away games.

The Golden Eagles used an array of explosive plays to rack up 656 yards on offense, and 35 first downs over a helpless UH defense.

Southern Miss must have studied the tape of Tulsa quarterback G.J. Kinne rushing for 197 yards on the UH defense last weekend, as quarterback Austin Davis had 111 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Through the air Davis completed 24 of 30 passes for 308 yards and two touchdowns.

The Cougars had success passing but were stuffed in the run game. Freshman quarterback David Piland had an improved performance, completing 28 of 46 passes for 440 yards and four touchdowns. The running back duo of Bryce Beall and Michael Hayes were held to 39 total yards on the ground

With less than a minute to go in the first half the Cougars were down 24-13, but showed some fight.

Southern Miss kicker Danny Hrapmann had a 59-yard field goal negated when UH head coach Kevin Sumlin called a timeout. On the retry Wesley Scourten blocked the field goal try – his fifth of the season – and Tyron Carrier recovered the ball to run it back 57 yards for a touchdown, closing the gap to 24-13 at halftime.

The Golden Eagles opened the second half scoring 21 unanswered points, and did not allow a UH score until 13:18 in the fourth quarter when Piland connected with James Cleveland for a 6-yard touchdown to make it 45-27.

Later in the fourth, Piland would hook up with Patrick Edwards for two touchdowns. Edwards finished with 125 yards on seven receptions.

Leave a Comment