EKU and KSU open seasons with blowout losses
Saturday Night Rewind
STARKVILLE Ms. and FRANKFORT Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW)- Two Bluegrass college football teams are 0-1 after blowout losses in their season openers.
Eastern Kentucky 7-56 Mississippi State
Inside the first minute of play, the Bulldogs scored their first touchdown as quarterback Blake Shapen began an afternoon of hurt for the Colonels. Mississippi State’s offense put EKU into a 14-0 hole with just over 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
At halftime, the Bulldogs had put up 35 points. In the second half, the home team added three more touchdowns.
Shapen threw for three touchdowns and ran in for a fourth as he had almost 250 yards passing.
As for Eastern’s quarterback, Matt Morrissey, he threw for the Colonels’ only score of the game with three seconds left in the first half to Ron Vann Jr.
“Obviously not happy with the outcome of the game, but I think there are some bright spots,” said Head Coach Walt Wells. “When we watch the film tomorrow, we’ll see some young guys making some good plays, some older guys making some good plays and then we’ve got to correct the mistakes we made. Those are the things that didn’t give us a chance in the fourth quarter. I believe you can continually improve, and we have to do that.”
The Colonels will play another away game for the Battle of the Bluegrass against Western Kentucky on September 7.
Virginia Union University 69-7 Kentucky State
The Thorobreds were down 34-7 at halftime and needed a comeback, but the points never came for Head Coach Felton Huggins’ team.
VUU scored five touchdowns in the second half to add salt into the wounds of KSU, whose only points came two and a half minutes into the game.
Up next for the Thorobreds is a trip to Huntsville, Alabama to play Alabama A&M in the Louis Crews Classic at 6 p.m. on September 7.
