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MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama football team's defense set a school game record with nine sacks — Pat Moore and Montavious Williams accounted for 2½ each — while allowing a season-low 274 yards Saturday to help lead the Jaguars to a 36-14 Sun Belt Conference victory over Louisiana-Monroe at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Ross Metheny led an offensive unit that gained 424 yards accounting for four scores while becoming the first individual in program history to record more than 100 yards passing and rushing in the same game, finishing with 194 through the air and three touchdowns to go along with 128 on 16 carries on the ground.
With the win, the Jaguars (4-6, 2-3 Sun Belt) snapped a three-game losing streak while maintaining hopes of becoming bowl eligible. The Warhawks (5-6, 3-3 SBC) fell for the second straight outing.
"I have never seen them play quite like that. They had a look in their eyes before the game, I knew they were going to be ready to play," Jaguar head coach Joey Jones said of the USA defense. "The defensive staff did a great job preparing them. You have to get after the quarterback to beat a team like ULM. (ULM quarterback) Kolton Browning is an unbelievable player but he just never felt comfortable the whole night, and I thought that was the difference in the game."
"Our coaches were talking about Kolton Browning all week — how he scrambles around and plays with his feet and arm," Williams added. "We put it on our back to get to him and put pressure on him; we pinned our ears back, and we got to him. We affected him, and it worked out for us with a win."
In addition to posting a career-high sack total, Williams finished with a season-best six stops, and Moore equalled previous career highs with 3½ tackles behind the line of scrimmage as well as in sacks while chipping in with five stops. Alex Page had a career-high-tying 10 tackles to pace the unit — two of those were for loss including a sack — and Enrique Williams added nine with 1½ behind the line. Jerome McClain was also credited with a pair of sacks among his career-best five stops, and Romelle Jones had 1½ tackles for loss as well.
Aleem Sunanon recorded the game's first points with a 43-yard field goal to put the Jags up 3-0 with six-and-a-half minutes remaining in the opening quarter, capping an eight-play possession. Metheny carried for 17 yards on the first snap of the drive, and he added an 11-yard rush to put the Jaguars on the ULM-21. On USA's next possession, Metheny connected with Shavarez Smith for a 43-yard completion to set up another Sunanon field goal; the redshirt freshman connected again from 45 yards out three-and-a-half minutes later to double the Jaguar advantage.
Smith once again paced the Jags with 90 yards on three receptions, while Bryant Lavender and Jeremé Jones caught four passes each for 46 and 41 yards, respectively.
"When your number gets called, you've just got to execute at a high level," stated Metheny. "My supporting cast makes my job a lot easier. Shavarez made some awesome plays out there today. When you have trust in those guys, it just makes my job easier."
ULM got on the board with an 11-play, 80-yard march, taking its first lead two-and-a-half minutes into the second quarter when Browning scored from six yards out. But just over three minutes later the Jags went back in front, 12-7, when Metheny found Smith for a 29-yard touchdown pass although the snap on the extra-point attempt was fumbled. Facing a three-and-out, Metheny hit Jones for a pick-up of 17 yards while one play before the score he caught a 13-yard pass from Jake Howton.
"It actually deflected off the defender's hand, and I just focused on it the whole way through. Luckily, I was able to bring it in," Smith said of the scoring catch. "We practice hard and I work hard every week, and it feels good to see that pay off in the game."
Jones caught his first touchdown pass since the Troy game on Oct. 5 15 seconds before the intermission to make it 19-7 at the half. The Jaguars' two biggest gains on the drive — for 17 and 18 yards, respectively — came from Jay Jones and Metheny, with USA moving inside the red zone when Smith drew a pass interference call on the Warhawks in the end zone.
Jones supplied 62 yards on 17 carries, and Kendall Houston added eight attempts for 30 yards as the Jaguars' 217 rushing yards were the second-highest total of the year.
ULM struck first in the second half with a six-play, 55-yard drive that Browning ended with a 44-yard touchdown pass to Rashon Ceaser, drawing the Warhawks to within five points less than five minutes after the break. Once again the Jaguars had an answer, driving 75 yards in 11 plays and little more four minutes, pushing their advantage to 26-14 on a two-yard pass from Metheny to Ryan Onkka — the first reception of his career — with USA facing third-and-goal. A 28-yard completion to Lavender on third-and-seven moved the Jags into Warhawk territory, while Smith added an 18-yard catch to put the ball in the red zone.
Sunanon's third field goal of the contest — his eighth make in a row dating back to USA's Oct. 19 win over Kent State, tying a school record — extended the lead to 29-14 and Metheny closed out the scoring with a 63-yard touchdown run with three-and-a-half minutes remaining in the contest.
"First of all I want to say how proud I am of my players, the staff and everyone involved in the football organization," Joey Jones commented. "It takes a lot of people to have success in a game like this. But what I'm most proud of is the fact that we've had to fight through so many things this year. I can't tell you how much these guys mean to me, because they've given everything they've had to make this program go.
"A lot of players and coaches would quit when you get beat in close games throughout the year like we have. So my hat's off to those guys for how they fought through it and just kept getting better."
Browning completed 18-of-26 attempts for 196 yards, and he carried 23 times for 22 more. Ceaser led all players with nine receptions for 138 yards, and Centarius Donald paced the Warhawk rushing attack with 33 yards on 10 attempts. Hunter Kissinger posted 12 stops and Cameron Blakes supplied 10 for the ULM defense.
"We got man-handled on both sides of the football up front," explained ULM head coach Todd Berry. "A little bit of the reason was because of the offensive line not giving us enough time and the play of the young receivers. We have an illness going through our team right now and unfortunately, it hit a couple of our back up offensive linemen and they weren't able to play, so we had some guys out there having to limp around. We got very tired and South Alabama kept rolling fresh bodies in and made a lot of plays on us."
USA will close out November with a 1 p.m. (CST) kickoff against Georgia State Saturday at the Georgia Dome, its final road contest of the regular season.
"We kind of put ourselves in a hole with all those close losses," stated Metheny. "We've got to take it one game at a time. We won the first, we need to win the second and put ourselves in a good situation to win the third. We took care of number one tonight."
"We can't be satisfied with this one. We have to take the same intensity we used last week and put it back in this week and work," Montavious Williams added.
"Every person needs hope in their life, and we have hope now," Joey Jones said. "We have a chance to play for a bowl game, and that's all you can ask for. That's something I've been praying for for these young men. We've been through a tough time. I think our guys have learned a life lesson, because they have had to fight through so much adversity. To come back and be successful through that is a testament to those guys and what they've done."
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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