MONROE, La. – Caleb Evans threw for three scores and ran for another to help lead ULM to a 30-17 Sun Belt Conference football victory over the University of South Alabama on Saturday at JPS Field at Malone Stadium.

Evans accounted for 313 yards of total offense, including completing 17-of-25 attempts for 286 yards, while Josh Johnson ran for another 93 as the Warhawks improved to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in the league.  Tra Minter rushed for a game-high 150 yards on 19 carries in addition to catching four balls for 32 for the Jaguars, who fell to 1-4 on the year and 0-1 in the Sun Belt.

ULM's Cortez Sisco paced all players led all players with 13 total tackles with Rashaad Harding adding 10 including 2½ behind the line of scrimmage.  Nick Mobley paced the Jags with nine stops, Roy Yancey contributed seven, and both DJ Daniels and Travis Reed were credited with six apiece.

ULM 30 South Alabama 17 (final stats)
South Alabama/ULM photo gallery

GAME FACTS
-South marched 90 yards on its opening possession, taking a 7-0 lead on C Johnson's three-yard run, only to see the Warhawks respond with a four-play, 75-yard drive to even the score at the end of the first quarter.
-After an interception in the end zone prevented the Jaguars from regaining the lead on the opening snap of the second quarter, ULM put together two more scoring drives of 70-plus yards to take a 17-7 lead at the half.
-The two teams combined for a total of 102 yards of offense in the third quarter, with the only points coming on a 21-yard _ Onate field goal that pulled the Jags within one score.
-Evans threw for one score and ran for another in the fourth quarter to help the Warhawks pull away.
-ULM recorded 286 yards passing and held a 428-377 edge in total offense despite 263 yards on the grounds for the Jaguars.
-The Warhawks averaged more than 16 yards per completion with all three of Evans' scoring passes covering at least 20 yards.

NOTES
-The Warhawks now hold a 4-2 advantage in the all-time series with their third straight victory over the Jaguars.
-USA is now 3-5 in its initial Sun Belt contest of the season.
-When Cephus Johnson scored on a three-yard run midway through the opening quarter it marked the first time South scored on its opening possession since a Sept. 7 win over Jackson State.
-South's defense held the Warhawks to just 3-of-11 third-down conversions, the second time this fall the unit has limited the opposition below 30 percent moving the chains.
-Minter posted his second 100-yard game of the season — the other came in the JSU victory — and the third of his career, becoming the fifth individual in program history with three or more such games in a career.
-In addition to leading the team in stops for the second straight week and third time this fall, Mobley posted his first sack of the season to end the Warhawks' opening possession of the second half.
-Rocel McWilliams has posted a sack in consecutive games as well, marking the third straight outing that the senior has made a stop in the offensive backfield.
-Johnson rushed for a career-best 72 yards while becoming the first Jaguar QB to rush for multiple scores in a game since Cole Garvin had a pair in the 2017 opener at Ole Miss.
-It was the first time in his career that Reed — who posted a career-high tackle total — has been credited with multiple pass break ups in a game.
-Jalen Tolbert matched a career high with four receptions and set another with a team-leading 44 yards.

THEY SAID IT
South Alabama head coach Steve Campbell
On what to take away from the game: "I thought our guys played hard and I thought we did some good things, but obviously that's not good enough. We made too many mistakes against a good team and our margin of error isn't good enough to make the mistakes that we made today and still be able to overcome them. We got down in the red zone and settle for a field goal one time. We also had a couple of penalties that hurt us offensively. I believe we had on third-and-three situation and wasn't able to get it because of an illegal procedure penalty. We had little things like that that hurt us. Defensively, we did some good stuff, but ULM is a good offensive team. We had some opportunities to either keep them off the board or make them settle for a field goal, but we weren't able to cash in in those situations.
On the process of getting this team to where you want it to get to: "While we gave good effort, we're not executing well enough on both sides of the ball to be able to overcome the mistakes that we made. There are things for us to learn from and grow from, and we need to keep pushing and get better. It's a process and I know we are going to get there; it's no fun as you're going through it, but anything sustainable takes hard work and it isn't easy. We're going to keep chopping wood and keep getting better, keep pulling for each other and eventually we'll get there."
On the quick turnaround: "It is what it is. We've known for a while that we were going to have this type of situation. I believe we came out relatively healthy tonight. We need to have some really good practices this week, so let's go get after Georgia Southern. There's still a lot of football left in front of us. We've got seven conference games and anything can happen."

Senior S DJ Daniels
On moving forward: "Coach preaches to us each week that we are just trying to go 1-0. Tonight's game is over, so we're just looking forward to moving on to Georgia Southern."
On what things the defense did well: "We did a better job communicating tonight. There were two calls that we messed up on and ULM was able to capitalize on both of them. Other than that, I thought we communicated well on the defensive side of the ball."
On what the defense needs to do to turn things around: "We just need to get back to work tomorrow and continue to rally everybody up and just work."

Senior RB Tra Minter
On what went well offensively: "I feel we ran the ball pretty well tonight and we executed on offense pretty well. The penalties kind of killed us at times and held us down, but I like how we fought, how our offensive line pushed and how the receivers blocked out on the edge. We just have to get the little things down."
On the quick turnaround facing Georgia Southern on Thursday night: "It was a tough loss for us, but we'll go back to the drawing board tomorrow and get everything corrected, and see what we missed offensively and defensively. We're just going to get better as a team. There's three phases of the game – offense, defense and special teams – and we can get better at every one of them. It's right there for us. If we had done the little things better, this game could have turned out a lot better for us. We're going to get ready for Georgia Southern next week."

Up next: South returns home to play host to Georgia Southern on Thursday, with the contest — set to air nationally on ESPNU — slated to get underway at 6:30 p.m. (CDT).

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

Join the South Circle, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics.  Contributions to South Circle directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/give

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