Western Kentucky will be playing football in December.
Already bowl eligible with six wins entering Saturday, the Hilltoppers added another win – an important one that pretty much locks them into a postseason game – to their resume by defeating Southern Miss 28-10 in Hattiesburg.
The Hilltoppers – now 7-4 overall and 5-2 in Conference USA – held Southern Miss to just a single touchdown and a field goal while also forcing three turnovers in yet another dominant defensive outing. Offensively, Western finished with 365 yards as quarterback Ty Storey finished 20-of-30 passing for 225 yards and two touchdowns.
"In my eyes, this was kind of the biggest win of the season for us, WKU coach Tyson Helton said postgame. "It's really tough to come to a place like Southern Mis and get a good victory. Really happy for our guys."
WKU will conclude its regular season next Saturday against longtime rival Middle Tennessee at Houchens-Smith Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
The Toppers struck first at the 9:03 mark of the opening quarter as Jacquez Sloan scored from 21 yards out on a reverse to cap a lengthy 14-play, 75-yard drive that knocked 5:57 off the clock and made it 7-0.
Southern Miss responded with a 68-yard TD pass from Jack Abraham to Tim Jones to even the scoreboard at 7-7 at the 4:31 mark, but Storey hit Jahcour Pearson with a 64-yard score early into the second to put WKU back in front at 14-7.
Storey’s second TD strike – this one a 21-yarder to Quin Jernighan with 5:02 left in the half – made it 21-7 before DeAngelo Malone picked up a Golden Eagles fumble and returned it for a five-yard score to boost the Toppers’ lead to 28-7 with 9:34 remaining.
Andrew Stein knocked in a 22-yard field goal to bring Southern Miss within 28-10 with 1:52 left, but that’s as close as the Golden Eagles would get.
Pearson finished with 88 yards on seven receptions, while Jernighan caught four passes for 50 yards. Gaej Walker recorded 20 carries for 84 yards.
"Every win is special," Storey said. "Just to keep rolling like we've been rolling, I know we've got a lot of confident guys right now. So, if we can just keep that going who knows what's going to happen. We've just got to keep playing ball."
