South Alabama Blows Out Mountaineers

South Alabama picked up where they left off last week as Brandon Bridge had a career day passing against the Appalachian State defense.

The South Alabama offense rolled up 582 yards of total offense, 339 yards through the air and 243 yards on the ground. Appalachian State collected 394 yards, 203 yards on the ground and 191 yards through the air. Though most of their yardage came late in the game against USA's reserves.

Brandon Bridge went 19-of-28 and set new personal records of 339 yards and three touchdowns through the air. He came up short of Ross Metheny's records for most passing yards in a game (360) and narrowly missed his record of 365 yards of total offense by three yards.

Shavarez Smith was Bridge's go-to receiver again this week as he led the team with 6 catches for 133 yards and two touchdowns. Danny Woodson caught 3 passes for 71 yards and a touchdown. Cameron Broadnax added caught 3 passes for 49 yards.

Xavier Johnson led the rushing attack with 10 carries for 70 yards. Jay Jones added 67 yards on 12 carries. Brandon Bridge, Terrance Timmons and Berron Tyson all had touchdowns.

After winning the kicking job prior to last weeks game, Grant McLaurin had problems against the Mountaineers. His first field goal attempt was blocked, then he missed a 24 yard attempt and then later had an extra point blocked. McLaurin went 2-for-4 in field goals and went 2-of-3 on PAT's. Aleem Sunanon came in after the missed PAT in the third quarter and went 3-for-3 on PAT attempts in the remainder of the game.

South Alabama got started early by forcing and recovering a fumble on the Mountaineers 26 yard line on their second play from scrimmage, but McLaurin's blocked attempt kept them off the board.

After forcing a three-and-out, the Jags quickly drove 44 yards for a touchdown to begin the scoring, and they wouldn't look back. Appalachian State would finally get on the board late in the first half after the Jaguars already had a 20 point advantage.

The Jaguars did not have the third quarter lull like they did last week against Idaho. This week they took all three of their possessions in the third quarter and convert them into touchdowns. Each third quarter drive would only take 6 plays each.

The first after the Jags received the opening kickoff of the half would cover 75 yards in six plays, the final 43 on a pass by Bridge to Danny Woodson. The second possession was 6 plays covering 62 yards which culminated in a 14 yard touchdown pass from Bridge to Shavarez Smith. The third and final possession of the quarter went 57 yards in 6 plays and was capped off by a 30-yard touchdown run by Terrance Timmons to give the Jags a commanding 40-7 lead entering the final stanza.

The Jags improved their record to 3-2 overall, 2-1 in Sun Belt Conference play. Appalachian State fell to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play.

The Mountaineers will host Liberty next weekend while the Jaguars have the week off before facing Georgia State for homecoming.