Ole Miss surges to 31-13 win over SE Missouri
OXFORD, Miss. — Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze acknowledged he was happy with the results. But he was not happy with the effort of his Rebels in a 31-13 win over FCS opponent Southeast Missouri.
“We’re happy to be 2-0. At the same time, I’m disappointed in the passion we played with in the second half,” Freeze said. “If we are going to take it to the next level, we have to start playing better for the entire game.”
The Rebels (2-0) played with passion in a 20-minute outburst that built a 31-0 lead midway through the second period. Quarterback Bo Wallace and Barry Brunetti directed five consecutive scoring drives that eliminated any hopes of an upset from the Ohio Valley Conference Redhawks.
Southeast Missouri (0-2), trailing 31-0 at halftime after falling 45-7 at home to Southeastern Louisiana in its opener, actually outscored the Rebels 13-0 in the second half. It was one of the positive aspects that wasn’t lost on Redhawks head coach Tony Samuel.
“We played a very good football team and once we settled down, we did some good things,” Samuel said. “The bright lights and their speed affected us. But, we showed some sparks and we will work to eliminate our mistakes and go from here.”
Ole Miss opened the five-series outburst with a 37-yard field goal by Andrew Ritter with 9:02 left in the first period. Wallace directed the next three touchdown drives of 47, 64 and 77 yards, including scoring strikes of 64 and 67 yards to Evan Engram and Donte Moncrief, respectively.
Both touchdown passes featured leaping catches, quick pivots and pull-ahead sprints to the end zone.
“Luckily, we have an athletic freshman tight end (Engram) that can make an acrobatic play,” Wallace said. “On Donte’s play, I thought I had thrown it too high, but he went up and got it and took it to the house. That’s what he does. He makes plays.”
Wallace did not play in the second half and finished 8 of 15 for 188 yards. Brunetti used timely scrambles in the final three periods to finish as the game’s leading rusher with 111 yards on 18 attempts. Ole Miss had 532 total yards of offense, but had a pair of fumbles and what Freeze termed, “mental mistakes”, that prevented any further scoring.
— Associated Press
