By By Robby Atkinson/staff writer
April 18, 2004
HATTIESBURG Many questions surrounded the offense heading into the annual Southern Mississippi Black/Gold spring football game. Some of those have been answered.
Sophomore quarterback Damion Carter led the Black squad to a 30-20 victory with three touchdowns including a 33-yard run late in the fourth quarter that sealed the win for the Black team on Saturday afternoon at M.M. Roberts Stadium.
Carter ended the game going 5-of-10 passing for 105 yards in the 10-point win. Junior quarterback Dustin Almond turned in a solid performance for the Gold team, going 9-of-20 for 137 yards with one touchdown.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Gold team got on the scoreboard first to take a 7-0 with 8:09 left in the second quarter. The touchdown was set up on a 43-yard punt return to the 32-yard line by Marvin Young.
The scoring drive concluded with a four-yard touchdown pass from Carter to Josh Carwile and Darren McCaleb added the extra point to give the Gold team an early second quarter lead.
The score remained 7-0 at the end of the first half, but the beginning of the second half brought about more offensive firepower. Carter was a very busy quarterback in the first half as the New Orleans native took snaps for both teams in the game.
The Black team started the third quarter by tying the game at 7-7 thanks to a long pass from Carter. He found Adam Hurst deep down the field for a 62-yard touchdown. The Gold team regained the lead moments later on a 47-yard field goal by McCaleb to make the score 10-7.
Caleb Hendrix put the Gold team in position for the field goal with a 67-yard kickoff return.
The Black team took over the lead once again, but this time the running game was used to get into the endzone. Carter put the Black squad in position for the touchdown on a 28-yard pass to Pedi Causey and junior running back Thomas Jackson ended the drive with a one-yard run to make the score 14-10 with seven minutes left in the third.
The Gold team answered with a touchdown in the late stages of the third quarter to take a 17-14 lead. Almond connected with DaRon Lawrence for a 17-yard strike to take the three-point lead with 4:17 left in the third.
McCaleb added his second field goal of the day from 27 yards out to extend the lead for the Gold team to 20-14 with 1:21 left in the third quarter.
The Black team scored the final 16 points, all in the fourth quarter, to take the win. The fourth quarter started with a safety from the defense which was given credit to Terrance Ford to make the score 20-16 with 9:13 left.
Carter put the Black team on top for good with a 33-yard touchdown run with 7:56 in the fourth to make the score 23-20. Carter ended the day with four rushes for 45 yards.
The final score of the day was on yet another special teams play from the Black team. John Eubanks scored on a 49-yard punt return with 3:21 left in the fourth quarter that was more than enough in the 30-20 win for the Black team.
Senior running back Tim Blackwell led the running attack in the spring game with 89 yards on 16 carries and freshman Larry Thomas had 32 yards on nine carries.
Sophomore John Archie had four solo tackles and five assists, while Dillon Cleckler had 13 assists from his middle linebacker position. Matthew Chatelain added two solo tackles and a sack to lead the Black squad on defense.
Southern Miss opens the 2004 football season on Sept. 11 at Nebraska and the Golden Eagles will return home to M.M. Roberts Stadium on Sept. 18 for a non-conference game against California. The first Conference USA game on the schedule is slated for Sept. 25 at Tulane.