Arkansas State Grinds Past Southern Miss 23-13
Southern Miss is 1-5, and this one does not help the arithmetic. Arkansas State won 23-13, led from the first field goal to the last whistle, and moved to 3-4.
Clune Van Andel did the early work. He kicked field goals of 29 and 40 yards in the first quarter and added a 44-yarder in the second, with Kenyon Clay scoring from 2 yards in between. That put the Red Wolves up 13-0, and Landry Lyddy answered with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Preston Kilgore to make it 13-7. Van Andel's third kick made it 16-7, and that was the halftime score and the score entering the fourth quarter, because nobody scored in the third. Timothy Carter ran in from 2 yards to open the fourth and make it 23-7. Steven Robinson scored from a yard out for Southern Miss with 10:02 to play, but the two-point run failed, and that was the end of the scoring.
The numbers are close in a way the score is not. Arkansas State gained 308 yards, Southern Miss 303. The difference was the ground game, 49 rushes for 138 yards for the Red Wolves against 24 for 95, and the turnovers. Lyddy threw two interceptions on 18 of 34 passing, and Arkansas State did not give the ball away once.
For fantasy, the best player on the field was a Southern Miss back. Robinson led everyone with 22.7 points, which is a decent consolation prize for a team that ended up 10 points short. Mario Sanders II and Lyddy both finished in the fourteens.