By Charlie Leffler
Hattiesburg, MS- As the Cardinal players ran off the field following their dramatic 20-17 double overtime win at Southern Miss they shouted, “we own The Rock!” Michael Brown shouted it, Josh Minkins declared it, Damien Dorsey repeated it over and over again.
The Rock, is the nickname for USM’s M.M. Roberts Stadium and though the Cards may not ‘own’ The Rock yet, after picking up their second consecutive win in Hattiesburg, they certainly have put a good down payment on the property.
It was a game that was marred by numerous turnovers on both teams, but that only led to the drama of the evening. Both Southern Miss and Louisville fumbled the ball four times apiece. The Cardinals lost all of their fumbles while USM lost three. To make things more interesting, each team blocked a kick by their opponent as well.
“We got some turnovers, which was huge,” said U of L head coach John L. Smith. That really helped us a bunch.”
However, it was not an easy win for Louisville and the game certainly was in doubt in the first half. Forced to punt deep in their own territory on their first possession, Wade Tydlacka fumbled the snap and his kicked was blocked. The Golden Eagles recovered the ball on the 16-yard-line and five plays later, Micky D’Angelo his Terrel Browden on a 5-yard-pass to put USM up 7-0.
Early in the first quarter, Louisville’s starting running back Henry Miller, sprained his ankle and the Cards were forced to go with T.J. Patterson who finished with 37 yards on 16 carries. Miller ran a total of nine times for 20 yards.
Louisville managed to get on the board with a 22-yard field goal from Nate Smith with 2:23 left in the first quarter but it was the Card’s only score of the half.
It appeared that perhaps the old Southern Miss curse had returned when with 8:02 left in the half the Golden Eagles’ Curt Jones kicked a 48-yard-field goal that appeared to be coming up woefully short. But the ball landed directly on top of the goalpost and bounced through to put USM up 10-7. Then with 5:18 left in the second, Southern Miss got the ball on the Louisville 33-yard-line. On his first play, D’Angleo through a strike deep down the left side of the field to a wide open Chris Johnson who streaked into the endzone and put the Eagles up 17-3 at the break.
Coming out after the break the Louisville defense stood tall, shut down Southern Miss, and gave the Cardinal offense a chance to get back into the game.
With 8:02 left in the third quarter, on a wild scramble, quarterback Dave Ragone his Joshua Tinch on a 13-yard-pass in the endzone to close the gap to 17-10. Then with 1:16 left in the period Ragone found a wide open J.R. Russell for a 34 yard touchdown to tie the game up.
It appeared that USM was in a position to win with 1:57 left in the game. Sitting on the Cardinal 20-yard-line, Jones attempted a 37 yard shot but the kick was blocked by the Cardinal’s Kerry Rhodes who skied up to get a hand on the ball.
Neither team scored again in regulation sending the game into overtime.
In the first overtime, Southern Miss was on offense first but Jones missed a 46-yard-field goal attempt.
Louisville got the ball and tried to run it close for a chip shot field goal to win, but T.J. Patterson fumbled on a run and Southern Miss recovered sending the game to second overtime.
In the second extra period, U of L was on offense first. They ran seven plays but couldn’t find the endzone so they settled for a 27-yard-field goal by Smith with put them ahead 20-17. “You know it’s going to be a good game, every time you play Southern Miss,” said Nate Smith. “It’s always going to be close.”
On USM’s possession, they could not get into the endzone either and had to settle for a 32-yard-field goal by Jones but once again his kick sailed right handing the victory to Louisville. On the night, Jones missed four field goal attempts. “We didn’t make plays,” said Southern Miss head coach Jeff Bower. “We had a lot of opportunities… You have to make plays when you get the chance.”
On the night, Ragone was 19-37 for 200 yards and two touchdowns. With the win, Ragone has moved into a tie for Louisville’s All-Time Winningest quarterback. Damien Dorsey led the Cardinal receivers with six receptions for 50 yards.
