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GREENVILLE -- Jeremy Young scored the second of his two 1-yard touchdown runs with 32 seconds left Saturday night to lead Southern Mississippi to a 28-21 victory over East Carolina in the Conference USA opener.

Young's score helped the Golden Eagles (2-1, 1-0 Conference USA) overcome a third-quarter rally which helped East Carolina (1-2, 0-1) erase a 14-0 deficit to take a 21-14 lead.

"Good teams are going to make a run," said Southern Mississippi coach Jeff Bower. "At 14-0 at the half ... we played well on both sides of the ball. I told them at halftime all good football teams are going to make a run at you some time. You're going to have to make plays and run the ball."

Young completed 18 of 28 passes for 237 yards and a touchdown. He was intercepted once.

The Pirates scored on their opening possession of the third quarter when quarterback Patrick Pinkney connected with Dwayne Harris for a 20-yard touchdown reception.

Linebacker Quentin Cotton intercepted a Young pass on Southern Mississippi's ensuing possession and returned it to the 1-yard line. Dominique Lindsay ran it two plays later in from a yard out to tie the game at 14.

After forcing a three-and-out on the next Golden Eagle possession, ECU took the lead on a six-yard touchdown pass from Pinkney to Chris Johnson with 2:34 left in the period.

Southern Mississippi charged back with a pair of 80-yard scoring drives which ended each time with Young scoring. The second march took 6 minutes, 8 seconds, leaving East Carolina little time to tie the score again.

The Pirates could only reach the Southern Mississippi 44 as time ran out.

Damion Fletcher ran for 111 yards and a score for the Golden Eagles.

Pinkney threw for 165 of his 203 yards in the second half, and completed 20 of 33 passes.

Southern Miss. 0 14 0 14 -- 28 East Carolina 0 0 21 0 -- 21

USM--Nelson 28 pass from J.Young (Estes kick)

USM--D.Fletcher 2 run (Estes kick)

ECU--Harris 20 pass from Pinkney (Hartman kick)

ECU--Lindsay 1 run (Hartman kick)

ECU--C.Johnson 6 pass from Pinkney (Hartman kick)

USM--J.Young 1 run (Estes kick)

USM--J.Young 1 run (Estes kick)

A--43,041.

Southern Miss. East Carolina

First downs 21 21

Rushes-yards 43-146 37-97

Passing 237 203

Comp-Att-Int 18-28-1 20-35-1

Return Yards 32 34

Punts-Avg. 4-37.3 6-41.3

Fumbles-Lost 3-2 0-0

Penalties-Yards 2-16 9-55

Time of Possession 29:13 30:47

Individual Statistics

RUSHING--Southern Miss., D.Fletcher 27-111, J.Young 11-20, C.Johnson 2-15, Harrison 3-0. East Carolina, C.Johnson 13-45, Pinkney 11-39, Lindsay 11-20, Harris 1-5, Clay 1-(minus 12).

PASSING--Southern Miss., J.Young 18-28-1-237. East Carolina, Pinkney 20-33-1-203, Clay 0-1-0-0, Team 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING--Southern Miss., C.Johnson 6-61, Nelson 3-62, D.Fletcher 3-57, Magee 3-39, Raines 1-8, Morgan 1-6, Morris 1-4. East Carolina, Harris 4-55, S.Rogers 4-23, Henry 3-48, C.Johnson 3-29, J.Bryant 2-39, Lindsay 1-9, Sonnhalter 1-7, Drew 1-6, Pinkney 1-(minus 13).