OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss dropped the 102nd all-time meeting with Mississippi State 55-20 in the annual Battle for the Golden Egg Saturday.
Freshman quarterback Shea Patterson threw for 320 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while senior running back Akeem Judd added 107 yards on the ground in front of 66,038 fans in Vaught Hemingway Stadium. It marked the second-largest crowd in school history and put the Ole Miss season attendance at 454,368, which is a school record.
The Rebels jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after Gary Wunderlichbooted a 24-yard field goal just over four minutes into the game. MSU responded with a 16-yard TD run form Aeris Williams with 5:48 remaining in the opening quarter to take a 6-3 lead after the extra point attempted failed.
Ole Miss answered back on the ensuing drive with a 19-yard touchdown catch by Damore’ea Stringfellow from Patterson to give the Rebels a 10-6 lead with 3:56 left, but the Bulldogs scored on an eight-yard TD pass from quarterback Nick Fitzgerald to hold a 13-10 lead after the first quarter.
The Rebel defense allowed to more touchdown to open the second quarter, as Ole Miss fell behind 27-10 before Patterson found Stringfellow once again, this time from 25 yards out, to pull to within 27-17 with 4:47 left before halftime. After the Ole Miss Landshark defense forced an MSU three-and-out, Wunderlich booted his second field goal, this one from 38 yards, to cut the Bulldog lead to 27-20 heading into the half.
Fitzgerald found Fred Ross on fourth-and-three form the Ole Miss 38 over the middle for a 38-yard touchdown catch that extended the MSU lead to 34-20 with 5:22 left in the third quarter. Fitzgerald added another score later in the third quarter, on a 61-yard run, to give the Bulldogs a 41-20 lead with 2:57 left in the quarter. The Bulldogs tacked on two more scores in the fourth quarter for the final score of 55-20.
