HATTIESBURG — The only thing that went wrong for Southern Miss in its opener against Alcorn State was the coin toss. Referee Steve LaMantia misidentified Southern Miss as Mississippi State not once, but twice to a chorus of boos from the USM faithful.

The rest, however, was all black and gold.

Quarterback Austin Davis threw three first-half touchdown passes to pace Southern Miss to a 52-0 victory in front of a school-record 36,232 fans. Davis completed 19 of 25 passes for 217 yards and also ran for a touchdown.

Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora was happy to earn a victory, but felt like it was an imperfect effort, especially with the Conference USA opener looming next Saturday against Central Florida.

“I feel like we left a lot of points on the field,” Fedora said. “We had mistakes on both sides of the ball. We gave up too many big plays, but it was a good, solid outing in the first game.”

Davis was a perfect 3-for-3 on USM’s opening drive, capped with a 10-yard screen pass to Gerald Baptiste, who twisted and turned into the end zone to put Southern Miss up 7-0 after Justin Estes’ kick. Running back Tory Harrison added another score on a 16-yard run late in the first quarter and Damion Fletcher bulldozed his way into the end zone from a couple yards out in the second to put the Golden Eagles ahead 21-0.

“We came out and did exactly what we expected to do, mixing the run and the pass,” Davis said. “I’ve always heard that the biggest improvement is from year one to year two and I kind of felt that tonight, being relaxed. All of the plays I’m running, I’ve run a million times and I feel comfortable with everything we’re running. It’s almost second nature.”

Alcorn threatened late in the first half, but Eddie Hicks picked off a Buckley pass in the red zone and returned the pick to the USM 49. That set up Baptiste’s second receiving TD a few plays later, this time from 9 yards out to put Southern Miss up 35-0 at the half.

Alcorn coach Earnest Collins was not upset with the effort in his debut.

“The first part is that we didn’t execute like we should have,” Collins said. “The second part is we were just outmanned. We’ve got a young football team. Outside of executing and being outmanned, I’m encouraged by our guys because I did see some things in our guys. But we’re going to win some football games. I guarantee you that because we have a bunch of kids that want to fight.”

Southern Miss racked up 631 yards and held Alcorn to 171. Fletcher led USM with 126 yards rushing on 19 carries, while Johnson added 72 yards on seven totes.

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Contact Steve Wilson at swilson@vicksburgpost.com