By Nathan Hutchinson
Register Sports Editor
Springfield, Mo. —
The Colonels got a big break just when they needed it most.
They just couldn’t take advantage.
Trailing 17-9 in the opening minute of the third quarter, Shannon Davis blocked a punt, which was recovered by Brooklyn Fox giving EKU a first down on the Missouri State 27-yard line.
Three plays later, Logan O’Connor missed a 36-yard field goal.
The Bears wasted little time taking advantage of that missed opportunity.
Missouri State put together a nine-play, 80-yard touchdown drive, then scored again just two minutes later to take a commanding 22-point lead.
Those two third-quarter touchdowns were the difference as the Bears defeated the Colonels 31-9 Friday afternoon at Plaster Field in the season opener for both teams.
“We score there and it’s a one-point game,” Eastern Kentucky University coach Dean Hood said. “You make a good play on special teams and then you don’t finish. That was pretty much the game.”
Standout sophomore quarterback T.J. Pryor threw for a career-high 315 yards, but was intercepted twice and was also sacked six times as the EKU offense struggled at times, especially on the ground. The Colonels had three turnovers, finished with just 35 net yards rushing and were just 2-of-15 on third downs.
“We’d have a good drive, then we’d have one bad play,” Pryor said. “Their defense made plays the entire game; they just kept coming at us.”
The game was originally scheduled to be played on Thursday night, but heavy thunderstorms with persistent lightning delayed the start for more than three hours before the first-ever meeting between the two schools was pushed back to Friday afternoon.
The delay didn’t seem to have too much of an effect on the Colonels early on, though.
EKU took a 3-0 lead early on a 34-yard field goal by O’Connor with 2:24 left in the first quarter.
Missouri State took the lead on the next drive, getting a 1-yard TD run from quarterback Cody Kirby in the opening minutes of the second quarter. Just more than four minutes later, O’Connor cut the Bears’ lead to 7-6 with a 32-yard field goal.
Missouri State responded with an 86-yard touchdown run by Chris Douglas and a 43-yard field goal by Jordan Chiles to take a 17-6 lead.
“Once we started to get some big plays from our offense, the momentum started to shift,” Kirby said. “That’s when we started to come together.”
O’Connor hit a 47-yard field goal on the last play of the half to cut EKU’s deficit to 11 points at the half.
EKU had just 11 yards rushing in the first half and continued to struggle in the second half trying to generate any kind of sustained offensive pressure.
“I talked to (offensive coordinator) Mike Springston at the half and we just said, ‘Let’s air it out. Let’s spread them out and let T.J. see the field.’”
The Colonels’ offense still didn’t really get going.
EKU didn’t have a first down in the third quarter and was 0-of-7 on third downs in the second half.
“They out-coached us and they out-played us,” Hood said.
Kirby was 15-of-25 for 199 yards, while Douglas had 10 rushes for 128 yards.
The loss was the fourth straight for the Colonels. EKU has also lost 10 straight season openers and has not won a non-conference road game since 2002.
The Colonels are set to return to action next week at Louisville.
NOTE: Junior Jeremy Caldwell did not play in the season opener. The defensive back recently had surgery for a sports hernia.
