Boxscore

BATON ROUGE, La. ? Five Louisiana Tech turnovers, untimely penalties and several big plays by LSU were too much for the Bulldogs to overcome in a 58-10 loss to the soon-to-be top-ranked Bayou Bengals at Tiger Stadium on Saturday night.

Tech (4-6, 3-3 WAC) fumbled the ball away three times, threw two interceptions, was stuffed on a fake field goal attempt and gave up plays of 71 and 86 yards in the contest. The Bulldogs mostly outplayed the Tigers in the first half, outgaining them for most of the half.

Senior quarterback Zac Champion completed 20 of his 39 attempts for 189 yards and a touchdown, but threw two interceptions on the day. Patrick Jackson led the Bulldog rushing attack with 42 yards on nine carries. Phillip Livas, making his first appearance as Tech?s primary kick returner, had 183 yards on five kickoff returns.

LSU?s Jacob Hester carried the ball 11 times for 115 yards and a touchdown. Matt Flynn completed 14 of 26 attempts for 237 yards and three touchdowns, throwing two interceptions.

Defensively, the Bulldogs were led by Antonio Baker with 12 tackles while Deon Young added 10.

The Tigers (9-1, 5-1 SEC) outgained the Bulldogs 595-256 on the afternoon. It marked the most yards allowed by Tech on the season, surpassing Hawaii?s total by two yards.

LSU jumped on the board early after the Bulldogs fumbled the ball away on the second play from scrimmage. Five plays later, Tiger quarterback Matt Flynn dove in from the one to put LSU ahead, 7-0. Another Bulldog fumble gave LSU the ball deep in Tech territory, leading to a 31-yard Colt David field goal to give the Tigers a 10-0 lead.

Tech was able to pull within three on a 37-yard pass from Zac Champion to Brian Jackson to make it 10-7 with 13:14 to play in the half. But LSU would answer with a 44-yard Colt David field goal and a 71-yard touchdown pass from Flynn to Terrance Toliver to put the Tigers ahead 20-7 with 8:04 left in the second.

The Bulldogs appeared to have life late in the half when Phillip Livas returned a punt inside LSU territory. But an illegal block penalty and an unsportsmanlike conduct foul moved the ball back inside the Tech 15, where the Bulldogs were forced to punt. Three plays later, Flynn found Brandon LaFell for a 37-yard touchdown pass putting the Tigers ahead 27-7 with less than a minute to play.

Livas returned the ensuing kickoff 76 yards to the Tiger 19, and the ?Dawgs gained 13 on the next play to bring up first and goal at the LSU 6 with about 30 seconds to go. But Champion?s pass on the next play bounced off the hands of Philip Beck and was trapped against the hip of the LSU defender for the interception, ending the Bulldog threat and any chance of momentum going into the half.

LSU came out firing in the second half, scoring 17 points in a span of less than seven minutes to put the game away at 44-7. A 39-yard field goal by Danny Horwedel would bring Tech to within 44-10 in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers would find the end zone twice more in the final frame.

Tech will return to conference action next Saturday as the Bulldogs play their final home game of the season against San Jose State. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Joe Aillet Stadium.