JACKSON – Sophomore
Chris Skinner had a rushing and receiving touchdown to pace the
Millsaps offense and the defense forced visiting
Austin College into six fumbles as the
22nd-ranked Majors cruised to a conference-opening
win Saturday afternoon over the 'Roos 41-7.
Millsaps
(3-0, 1-0 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference) darted out
to a 31-0 halftime lead after surrendering just 88
total yards in the first half and scoring on a pair of Juan Joseph
TD tosses, a Taylor Russolino field goal, a 15-yard Lee Klein
fumble recovery and a Skinner rush.
From
there, the Majors scored early in the third and fourth quarters
to push the lead to 41-0 and narrowly missed their first shutout
win since 2007 when the 'Roos finally got on the scoreboard with
3:42 left after a 21-yard TD strike from Travis Zambiasi to Ed
Amerson.
The
win for Millsaps was its third-straight SCAC-opening win and
brought the Majors and 'Roos even at 15-15 in the overall series.
Millsaps has won four in-a-row over Austin and seven of the last
eight overall.
Senior
Cap White headed a strong defensive showing for the Majors, recording
a career-high nine tackles, while Denarold Anderson, Will Hawkins
and Michael Sims picked up seven tackles apiece. Anderson also
recorded the Majors' lone sack for minus 11-yards and forced
one of six fumbles on the day, whereas Sam Herman had three tackles-for-loss
and a forced fumble that led to a score.
On
offense, Eric McCarty had a game-high six catches for 25 yards
and a score, freshman Shane Bowser had 34 yards on the ground
with a TD and QB Juan Joseph was 23-of-31 for 184 yards and two
TD tosses. Fourteen different receivers caught at least one pass
behind Joseph, Chris Graves and Andrew Pearce.
Reigning
SCAC Special Teams Player of the Week and D3football.com Team
of the Week selection, punter Will Lawrimore had another solid
outing, averaging 43.5 yards
on four punts with a long of 49 and one inside the 20. On the
year, Lawrimore is averaging 44.0 yards-per-punt to lead the
league.
Austin
College (1-2, 0-1 SCAC) was led offensively by Travis Hasten
with 12 carries for 41 yards and Seth Hanna with two catches
for 50 yards. Amerson scored the lone 'Roos touchdown late in
the fourth quarter.
Millsaps
will face its first road test in league play next weekend, traveling
to Memphis, Tenn., to face off with the Rhodes College Lynx (1-1).
The Majors have won four-straight against the Lynx and have not
lost a SCAC road game in the Mike DuBose era (7-0 overall). The
game will be streamed live on the internet at www.atwsportscast.com with
Derrel Palmer handling play-by-play duties.
Game
Notes:
A total of 83 viewers were watching the online video
stream
A total of 82 players stepped on the field in the 34-point victory
Millsaps has outscored SCAC opponents by an average of 29.9
ppg in its last 14 games
