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MOBILE, Ala. – Favian Upshaw ran for 108 yards and threw for 127 more, guiding a Georgia Southern offense that gained 304 yards on the ground Saturday in a 24-9 Sun Belt Conference football win over the University of South Alabama at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

Kevin Ellison added 86 yards rushing as well, including a 27-yard score in the fourth quarter, as the Eagles (2-0, 1-0 Sun Belt) got 331 yards of total offense from their two senior quarterbacks.

"They are athletic at that position," Jaguar head coach Joey Jones explained.  "When you flush them out sometimes it's not a good thing and they take off and run for 20 or 30 yards because they are so fast.  If you get up field too far and they take off, it makes it tough on the secondary come up and make a play.  They have some fast players in the backfield and they make a lot of plays."

"They have two athletic quarterbacks who create problems," sophomore defensive lineman Sean Grayer said.  "You know you have to be sound and disciplined, because if you aren't in the right gap then those quarterbacks will hit that hole and hit it fast.  They are playmakers, so they can score at anytime from anywhere on the field."

Matt Breida carried 17 times for 54 yards while Wesley Fields added 46 on 11 attempts.  Upshaw completed 6-of-9 attempts as well, with BJ Johnson III recording 63 yards on three receptions and Montay Crockett contributing 42 on two catches.

Their efforts helped the Eagles end up with 441 total yards.

Roman Buchanan was credited with a career-best tackle total for the second time in as many weeks this fall, pacing the Jags (1-1, 0-1 SBC) while leading all players with 13 stops; that included a pair behind the line of scrimmage.  Jeremy Reaves and Bull Barge posted nine stops apiece — the most for both on the year — with the former contributing 1½ tackles for loss, Neiko Robinson chipped in with eight tackles and Darrell Songy had six.  Randy Allen and Kalen Jackson each finished with five stops, with the former forcing a fumble on a sack and the latter collecting a career-high 2½ tackles behind the line.

"There are no moral victories; we play to win," Buchanan said.  "There were a couple of times on third down where we let them out of the pocket — at the end of the day it just comes down to executing and doing your job. They executed better than us."

Through three quarters GS was 6-of-9 on third-down conversions before the Jaguars got three stops over the final 15 minutes. 

Ironhead Gallon and Ukeme Eligwe led the Eagle defense with seven tackles apiece, while Logan Hunt finished with six stops and Joshua Moon collected five.  Their efforts helped GS limit South to 352 yards of total offense including 73 rushing.

Gavin Patterson connected on his first career field goal from 40 yards out to cap the Jags' opening possession of the night, with 37 of the 52 yards on the drive coming on a pass from Dallas Davis to Kevin Kutchera.  Just over six minutes later Younghoe Koo evened the score for the Eagles with a 28-yard field goal, and after a three-and-out followed by an 18-yard punt, GS needed only to move 48 yards before taking a 10-3 advantage with just over a minute remaining in the first period after L.A. Ramsby scored from one yard out on third-and-goal.

USA cut its deficit to four with just over a minute to go before the half, putting together a march that took nearly seven minutes off the clock before Patterson converted a 23-yard field goal.  The Jaguars converted three times on third down on the drive, with the first two via Davis passes to Xavier Johnson and Josh Magee for five and 25 yards, respectively.

The Eagles used a 31-yard pass from Upshaw to Johnson to move to the USA-5 with 10 seconds left in the half, but when Upshaw was forced to scramble on the ensuing play Zach Befort brought down the GS quarterback after a two-yard gain as time expired.

The Eagles did score on the first drive of the second half, however, with a nine-play, 73-yard drive that culminated with four-yard Fields touchdown run.  Ellison began the possession with a 25-yard run up the left sideline, while Upshaw hit Johnson for 25 yards to move GS into the red zone.

Twice the Jaguars ventured into Eagle territory in the third quarter but came away with no points.  A 29-yard pass from Davis to Gerald Everett on third-and-one put South on the GS-35, but the threat ended when Gallon broke up a third-down pass and Eligwe stopped Davis for no gain on the next snap.  On the Eagles' ensuing possession Allen sacked Upshaw, forcing a fumble on the play that Grayer picked up and ran back to the GS-27.  Davis had an eight-yard run to begin the USA drive that followed, but three incompletions around a Jaguar personal foul call turned the ball over on downs.

After taking over on their own 34-yard line, the Eagles upped their lead to 24-6 on the second play of the fourth quarter when Ellison reached the end zone from 27 yards out.  Patterson hit a 32-yard field goal with just under eight minutes to go in regulation, but on the Jags' final two drives Ryan George and Bernard Dawson combined to sack Davis for an eight-yard loss on fourth-and-five after USA had advanced to the GS-29 before Jessie Liptrot intercepted a pass in the end zone intended for Jordan McCray 17 seconds before the end of the contest.

Davis completed 21-of-42 attempts for 279 yards for the Jaguar offense, finding Magee a game-high six times for 50 yards.  Kutchera finished with a career-high 69 yards and Everett recorded 64 — both had three receptions — with Tyrone Williams also catching three balls for 36 yards.  McCray added 45 yards on the first two catches of his career as well, but Johnson was USA's leading rusher with 21 yards on seven carries as Tyreis Thomas gained 20 yards on the ground and Davis supplied 18.

"We couldn't really find a rhythm," stated Davis.  "That's a tough defense we were up against, and we weren't able to execute as well as we wanted to."

"I think tonight was definitely a humbling moment for us," Everett added.  "We need to do a better job of executing our assignments and making sure everybody knows what they need to do and when they need to do it."

"They are a really good team and we knew that coming in," said Jones.  "They are very talented and well coached.  They run the ball well.  When you run the football like they do, it definitely takes some things out of you.  Our guys fought, though, and I thought our defense never gave up; we kept getting after it.  We had one turnover late.  We laid it on the line; we just didn't make some plays down the stretch."

USA continues Sun Belt play next weekend with a 6 p.m. (CDT) kickoff at Louisiana-Lafayette, with the game scheduled to be carried live on ESPN3.

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).

—USA—