Florida State falls behind early, rallies to 45-34 win over Ole Miss
BOX SCORE: Florida State 45, Ole Miss 34 | Game Photo Gallery
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ORLANDO - At first, Florida State had trouble scoring. By the third quarter, the Seminoles couldn't stop.
FSU was down 28-6 with around three minutes left in the second quarter yet at one point rallied to score 33 unanswered points. In all, the Seminoles scored on nine consecutive drives en route to a 45-34 win over Mississippi on Monday in the Camping World Kickoff at Camping World Stadium.
The thrilling rally, which was led by freshman kicker Ricky Aguayo and redshirt freshman quarterback Deondre Francois, appeared a bit improbable given FSU's sluggish start.
Aguayo was 6 for 6 on field goals with two of his attempts coming from at least 40 yards. Meanwhile, Francois threw for 419 yards and ran for two touchdowns. He accounted for 479 total yards.
FSU was able to run 42 plays in the first half but only managed 232 yards. It also did not help the Seminoles accounted for 11 penalties and 97 yards.
Francois got things going with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Travis Rudolph with 28 seconds left in the half. It closed the gap to 28-13 following an Aguayo extra point.
FSU opened the third quarter with an Aguayo 40-yard field goal to make it 28-16. Senior defensive end DeMarcus Walker forced a fumble, the Seminoles recovered deep in Rebels territory and a one-yard run from Freddie Stevenson made it 28-23 with 11:28 left.
Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly went from unstoppable to hardly being a factor in the third. The Rebels had 312 yards in the first half but were suppressed to -7 yards during FSU's rally.
FSU eventually took the lead when Kermit Whitfield scored on an end-around from three yards out. It gave FSU a 29-28 lead as the Seminoles failed on a two-point conversion.
Any regret about missing the two-point conversion was soon short-lived. Francois threw his third touchdown pass of the night with 4:12 to push the lead to 36-28.
The lead increased to 39-28 when Aguayo drilled his fourth field goal of the evening to open the fourth quarter. Aguayo made it 42-34 with 9:16 remaining in the fourth.
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