by ULMWarhawks.com Online Columnist Paul Letlow
OXFORD, Miss. – The crowd at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium was unusually quiet as ULM and Ole Miss trotted to the locker room at halftime Saturday.

Maybe it was the 11 a.m. kickoff that had them feeling foggy. Or maybe it was the slender four-point lead the highly-favored Rebels held over ULM through two quarters.

No. 13/14 Ole Miss (9-2) pulled away in the second half for a 35-3 win over ULM. But for two quarters at least, the Warhawks were in it.

"They just had more bullets than we did," ULM coach Terry Bowden said. "We played as good as we can possibly play. We had two fourth-down stops, they missed a field goal and we're 7-3 at halftime. That's about as good as we could ever play against a great Ole Miss team that put 55 on LSU and 40-something on Texas A&M.

"But we just ran out of bullets. They continued to take shots and make plays. We kind of ran out of gas and it gradually got away."

Ole Miss extended ULM's losing streak to nine games. The Warhawks (2-9) fell to 0-5 on the road this season.

Hunter Smith rushed for 74 yards on 17 attempts as the Warhawks gained an impressive 192 yards on the ground. Jiya Wright completed 7-of-19 passes for 56 yards and one interception.

ULM registered three sacks (Adin Huntington, Kenard Snyder and Dylan Howell), 11 tackles for loss and five quarterback hurries in the contest. Max Harris and JaTerious Evans led the Warhawks with eight tackles each.

Jaxson Dart completed 24-of-31 passes for 310 yards and three touchdowns to pace an Ole Miss offense that gained 498 yards with 26 first downs.

Defensively, the Warhawks enjoyed several notable stops early in the game and kept the score close throughout the first half.

ULM's defense held on the opening drive as Ole Miss kicker Caden Davis missed wide right on a 50-yard field goal attempt. The Warhawks also stuffed the Rebels on fourth-and-2 at the Ole Miss 27 on the second defensive series, but couldn't convert the turnover on downs into points and settled for a punt.

After a pair of fruitless Ole Miss drives, Ulysses Bentley IV scored on a 14-yard touchdown run with 4:26 to go in the first quarter to give the Rebels a 7-0 lead. The scoring drive covered 85 yards in 10 plays.

After a Wright interception with 9:40 left before the half, ULM's defense rose to the challenge once again. A third-down sack by Dylan Howell cost the Rebels 9 yards and brought the Ole Miss punt team out with 6:25 left in the second quarter.

After regaining possession, ULM drove to the Ole Miss 9 with one second remaining. Braxton Guilbeau booted the 26-yard field goal for a 7-3 halftime score.

"The defense kept us in the game and our offense had a couple of drives," Bowden said at halftime. "7 to 3 is where you want to be because these guys can really make it happen."

Ole Miss held ULM to 1 yard in the first quarter but the Warhawks outgained their host 102-27 in the second quarter.  In the first half, Wright was 4-for-10 passing for 16 yards while Smith led the running game with 61 yards on 11 carries.

Meanwhile, the ULM defense had three sacks six tackles for losses and four quarterback hurries through two quarters.

The second half saw Ole Miss pull away as the starters flexed their muscle in a 21-0 third quarter. Dart completed 8-of-9 passes for 159 yards and three touchdowns in the game-changing quarter.

"It was a good third quarter," Ole Miss Lane Kiffin said. "They responded well to come out 21-0 in the third quarter. It was good on both sides of the ball."

Dart tossed a 13-yard touchdown pass to Tre Harris on the first Ole Miss drive of the third quarter. The Rebels led 14-3 after the nine-play, 78-yard march.

The Rebels extended their lead to 21-3 on Dart's 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Caden Prieskorn with 4:15 remaining in the third quarter. The Ole Miss scoring drive covered 60 yards in eight plays.

Ole Miss kept coming in the third quarter, as Dart's 58-yard touchdown pass to Dayton Wade pushed the lead to 28-3 after a swift three-play, 60-yard drive.

ULM reached the red zone in the fourth quarter but turned it over on downs at the Ole Miss 19 after a nine-play, 55-yard drive came up empty.

Ole Miss freshman Cayden Lee popped loose for a 51-yard touchdown catch and run from Spencer Sanders with 6:12 left in the contest for a 35-3 lead. The six-play, 81-yard drive stayed alive after a roughing the punter penalty call against ULM.

"I'm proud of the way our guys played," Bowden said. "We hung in there, especially our defense doing a great job until they ran out of gas."

Up next: ULM finishes the 2023 season at Louisiana-Lafayette. Kickoff at Cajun Field is 2 p.m.

Tail feathers:  Mississippi natives Jaylan Ware, Bud Tolbert and Jay Mickle served as game captains today. … ULM fell to 0-5 in the all-time series vs. Ole Miss. … Former ULM standout Marcus Green, a Mississippi product, attended the game.   … Running back Isaiah Woullard transferred to ULM from Ole Miss. … West Monroe product Charlie Norman came in late in the fourth quarter to gain 48 yards on eight carries. His 17-yard run was the longest of the day for ULM.