Nov. 19, 2011

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Box Score

AUBURN, Ala. - The Samford football team wrapped up the 2011 season with a hard-fought 35-16 loss at defending BCS National Champion Auburn Saturday afternoon in front of a crowd of 85,347 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The crowd was the largest to ever see a Samford game.

Freshman running back Jeremiaha Gates led the Samford offense with 28 rushes for a career-high 119 yards. The game marked the first time the freshman has rushed for 100 yards in a game. Senior quarterback Dustin Taliaferro completed 17-of-33 passes for 161 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Taliaferro finishes his career with a Samford record 707 completions, surpassing the old record of 704 set by Ray Nelson from 2001-04.

"I thought our kids played awfully hard today," Samford head coach Pat Sullivan said. "We blocked a little better up front than I thought we could. Dustin (Taliaferro) had a good game and we were able to get some things going. Jeremiaha Gates ran the ball well."

Sullivan was honored before the game for the 40th anniversary of his Heisman Trophy winning season as Auburn's quarterback in 1971. Sullivan's teammates from Auburn, his family and the Samford and Auburn teams joined in the ceremony.

"Having all of them (his former teammates) come back and seeing the emotions, seeing the love ... it's no different than it was 40 years ago," Sullivan said.

Samford trailed 14-10 at halftime, and the Bulldogs pulled to within one point at 14-13 in the third quarter before Auburn scored 21 of the game's final 24 points to pull away for the win.

In addition to Gates' rushing totals, he caught four passes for 70 yards. Kelsey Pope led Samford's receivers with 13 catches for 90 yards and a touchdown. Place-kicker Cameron Yaw was good on all three of his field goal attempts, making kicks of 40, 28 and 37 yards.

Defensively for Samford, Alvin Hines II led the Bulldogs with eight tackles, all solo. Keith Shoulders and Brandon Wilkinson had a fumble recovery each for the Bulldogs.

For Auburn, Michael Dyer rushed 30 times for 157 yards and a touchdown. Clint Moseley completed 13-of-20 passes for 167 yards and a touchdown. Moseley also had a rushing touchdown in the game.

Defensively for Auburn, Daren Bates had 12 tackles. Neiko Thorpe and Ikeem Means had an interception each for the Tigers.

Auburn jumped on top first when Moseley hit Phillip Lutzenkirchen for a 32-yard touchdown with 7:07 to go in the first quarter. Cody Parkey added the extra point to give Auburn at 7-0 lead.

Samford answered with a score of its own early in the second quarter. Taliaferro hit Pope for an eight-yard touchdown with 14:27 left in the second quarter. Yaw added the extra point to tie the score at 7-7.

The Tigers took the lead again when Onterio McCalebb scored on a 10-yard run with 10:03 to go in the second quarter. Parkey's PAT made the score 14-7.

Samford struck again late in the second quarter. Yaw kicked a 40-yard field goal with 2:32 left in the second quarter to cut Auburn's lead to 14-10.

The Bulldogs pulled to within one point of the Tigers on Samford's first offensive possession of the second half. Yaw kicked his second field goal of the game, this one from 28-yards out to make the score 14-13 with 7:22 left in the third quarter.

Auburn's Dyer scored on a six-yard run with 3:25 to go in the third quarter. Parkey added the PAT to push Auburn's lead to 21-13.

Yaw added a 37-yard field goal with 13:22 left in the fourth quarter. The kick cut Auburn's lead to 21-16.

Moseley scored on a 22-yard run with 11:28 to go in the game, and Parkey's PAT pushed the Tigers' lead to 28-16. McCalebb added a 10-yard touchdown with 2:17 left in the contest, and Parkey's extra point made the final score 35-16.

Samford finished the season with a record of 6-5 overall and 4-4 in Southern Conference play. The season marks Samford's first winning season since 2008. Auburn improves to 7-4 overall, and the Tigers are 4-3 in Southeastern Conference play.