BATON ROUGE, La. – South Alabama Football fought admirably in the second half but could not overcome a slow start as the Jaguars fell to No. 14 LSU, 42-10, Saturday night at Tiger Stadium.
 
The loss dropped South Alabama to 2-3 for the season while LSU improved to 4-1.
 
"Obviously, we just started very poorly," said head coach Major Applewhite. "Defensively, we gave up two huge plays. We had a touchdown and an explosive play to the one-inch line. We have to look at ourselves as coaches and figure out how we can prepare our guys differently to give them a better opportunity to win. Give credit to LSU. They are a great football program. They've been criticized since week one, but they can do some damage in their conference. I'm proud of how our guys fought and how the staff brought them back into the game in the second half. We now have to get ready for Sun Belt play, which will be a bunch of touchdown ball games every week."
 
LSU exploded out of the gates, scoring on the first play of the game, and then in just two plays on their next possession. The 35-3 halftime deficit would prove to be too much to come back from for the Jaguars.
 
South settled into the game in the second half, marching down the field for their only touchdown of the game. Kentrel Bullock had rushed of 12 and 16 yards on the drive, then quarterback Gio Lopez connected with Anthony Eager on a 27-yard touchdown pass to make the score 35-10. USA capitalized on its new-found momentum when Jaden Voisin picked off the Tigers on the ensuing possession, but the Jags came up one yard short of a touchdown that would have made it 35-17 when Lopez was stopped on the LSU one-yard line on a run on fourth and goal.
 
Lopez finished the game 16-of-22 with 171 yards and a touchdown. Eager was his top receiving target as the redshirt freshman finished his career night with four receptions for 91 yards. Bullock was the team's top rusher with 56 yards on nine attempts. Defensively, Amarion Fortenberry finished as USA's top tackler with 10 takedowns to go with two pass breakups. In addition to Voisin's interception, Lardarius Webb Jr. recorded his first-career interception to help the Jags finish plus-two in the turnover margin.
 
South Alabama will now prepare to close out a three-game road swing when it returns to Sun Belt Conference play at Arkansas State on Saturday, Oct. 5. The Jaguars and Red Wolves will kickoff at 6 p.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
 
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