Joplin, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern football team answered visiting Central Missouri's first scoring drive with one of its own, but the Mules scored right away and didn't let up in a 56-7 win over the Lions tonight inside Fred G. Hughes Stadium. 

Southern (1-6, 1-6 MIAA) was led by Scott Lathrop as he caught 12 passes, one off the MSSU single-game record, for 101 yards. Jordan Morrison had five catches for 46 yards and a touchdown. TJ Fleeton went 17-30 for 134 yards and a touchdown, while Brayden Scott went 9-17. Josh Hadley had 31 yards on the ground to lead the rushing attach. 

Defensively, Alexander Wade led the Lions with eight tackles, including six solo. Xavier Marsten had seven tackles, including two for a loss and two quarterback hurries, while Justin Legier had seven stops of his own. Ricky Green had five tackles, an interception return fro 58 yards and two pass breakups in the game. Kendrick Johnson had a quarterback sack for a loss of five yards. 

The Mules (5-2, 5-2 MIAA) fot a 22-36 performance and 275 yards with four touchdowns from Garrett Fugate. 

Central went down the field and completed an 11 play, 79 yard drive in 3:47 to go up 7-0 after a five-yard rushing score from Marquel McNac. 

The Lions answered right back and an eight play, 75-yard drive in 3:03 tied the score at seven when Fleeton hit Morrison for a two-yard score on the next possession. Southern got six complete passes from Fleeton to three different receivers in the drive. 

Central scored 49 unanswered points to finish off the game. 

The Lions had 259 yards of total offense in the game, 191 passing. Lathrop's 12 catches was one off of Rod Smith's school record set back in 1993. Lathrop is the fifth Lion to catch at least 12 passes in a single game, joining Colin Bado, Landon Zerkel and Dave Evans. Bado did it three times. 

The Lions will be back in action next weekend when Southern travels to Edmond, Okla. to take on Central Oklahoma. Kickoff is slated for 2 pm.