Nick Kendall
Staff Writer
nkendall1@murraystate.edu
Murray State football extends their losing streak to three after falling to the Tennessee Tech University Golden Eagles 17-7.
The Racers came out of the gates hot, as redshirt freshman Marcis Floyd gave the team some momentum early in the first quarter when he intercepted a pass from Tennessee Tech’s sophomore quarterback Bailey Fisher.
A minute later the Racers scored their first and only touchdown of the game on an 11-yard pass from redshirt sophomore quarterback Preston Rice to redshirt sophomore wide receiver LaMartez Brooks.
Tennessee Tech made up for the early interception when senior kicker Haidar Zaidan connected on a 23-yard field goal attempt.
In the second quarter, the Golden Eagles took the lead when Fisher completed a 20-yard pass to sophomore running back David Gist.
Murray State reached the red zone again ready to score, but Rice’s pass was intercepted by junior defensive back Quintavious Boyd.
The third quarter was uneventful for the most part as neither team could find the endzone. Then with less than 30 seconds left in the quarter, Fisher found senior running back Andrew Goldsmith for a 31-yard touchdown pass.
With 6:32 left in the fourth, the Racers showed a sign of life when they reached the red zone once more.
However, just like in the second quarter, Rice threw an interception and their last chance was destroyed. Tennessee Tech ran out the clock and sealed their second conference victory of the season.
The Golden Eagles out-rushed the Racers 209 yards to 71 and out passed them 206 yards to 196.
Rice finished the game with 196 passing yards, completing 23 of 34 attempts, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Senior punter Steve Dawson finished the game with six punts for 245 yards, his longest going 45 yards.
Redshirt junior linebacker Anthony Kocklanakis finished the game and led the team with 18 tackles.
Racer defense had a good night, but Kocklanakis believes they could have done a better job getting stops.
“A lot of times we were going for the strip right away before we even secured the tackle and that might be why they rushed for a lot more yards,” Kocklanakis said. “We were constantly trying to turn the ball over and we did twice but it still didn’t work out for us.”
Head Coach Mitch Stewart was happy with the way defense performed, but offense is another story.
“To be honest we, offensively, did not play well enough to even be close in that game,” Stewart said. “We got to look at some things on the offensive side of the ball starting tonight and make some changes that are necessary.”
Stewart believes that Dawson is amazing, but he doesn’t want to have him on the field that much.
“We gotta stop using him,” Stewart said. “We’ve made a name for ourselves with the team that will go for fake and get it and all that kind of stuff, and that’s a great identity to have, but I would rather have an identity of an offense that can stay on the field and convert on third downs.”
The Racers finally have a bye week so they’ll have time to work out some kinks in the system.
For Kocklanakis, this rest is just what the team needs.
“It is nice to get healthy for a week,” Kocklanakis said. “That’ll be nice, but the thing is, I think as a defense these past three weeks we’ve really gotten back to playing our standard of football. Just little often mistakes that we make and if we can minimize those and take that in the bye week then we’ll be a lot better off these last two games.”
The Racers will take the home field one last time as they take on their rival Austin Peay State University at noon on Saturday, Nov. 16, at Stewart Stadium.