Graham Mertz threw three touchdown passes and ran for another score as Florida defeated Mississippi State 45-28 on Saturday afternoon in Starkville, Miss.

Mertz completed 19 of 21 passes for 201 yards and DJ Lagway completed all seven of his passes for 76 yards for the Gators (2-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference).

Blake Shapen threw a touchdown pass and ran for a touchdown for the Bulldogs (1-3, 0-1) before leaving the game for good midway through the fourth quarter because of an undisclosed injury.

On its first possession of the second half, Mississippi State drove 76 yards and Shapen threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Mosley to trim Florida’s lead to 28-21.

Mertz’s 1-yard touchdown run pushed Florida’s lead back to 14 points at 35-21 at the end of the third quarter.

Mississippi State had a chance to cut the margin in half, but on the second play of the fourth quarter it lost 6 yards on fourth and goal from the 1.

The Gators drove 93 yards and increased the lead to 42-21 on Lagway’s 6-yard TD run.

Johnnie Daniels ran 10 yards for a Bulldogs touchdown and Trey Smack kicked a 47-yard field goal for the Gators to complete the scoring with 2:34 remaining.

The first three possessions of the game ended with punts before Florida put together a 13-play, 84-yard drive. Mertz threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Arlis Boardingham.

MSU answered with an eight-play, 62-yard drive that ended with Davon Booth’s 5-yard touchdown run that tied the score 7-7 at the end of the first quarter.

The Gators scored touchdowns on three consecutive second-quarter possessions as Mertz threw scoring passes of 20 yards to Marcus Burke and 35 yards to Hayden Hansen and Ja’Kobi Jackson added a 10-yard scoring run to give the Gators a 28-7 lead.

The Bulldogs responded by driving 75 yards in less than a minute and Shapen ran 3 yards for a touchdown that trimmed the lead to 28-14 at halftime.

–Field Level Media