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Louisville 23 EKU 13
#1
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky outscored Louisville 13-0 in the second half, but the Colonels' rally fell short as the host Cardinals held on for a 23-13 win Saturday afternoon.
#2
September 12, 2010
Louisville builds big early lead, tops EKU, 23-13

By Nathan Hutchinson Register Sports Editor Register Sports Editor Sun Sep 12, 2010, 01:20 AM EDT

LOUISVILLE — Long after the majority of a sellout crowd of more than 51,000 had vacated Papa John’s Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the Colonels made the final minutes of an in-state showdown with Louisville rather interesting.

Even though the Cardinals had raced out to a 23-point halftime lead, a 1-yard touchdown catch by Kyle Lumpkin with just 2:28 left gave EKU a chance to turn a would-be blowout into a one-possession game.

That chance slipped away, however.

An offensive pass interference call on the two-point conversion allowed Louisville to hold on to a 10-point lead and even though they recovered an on-side kick, the Colonels (0-2) ran out of time.

Louisville (1-1) held on for a 23-13 win, giving first-year coach Charlie Strong his first win as a head coach.

“I felt good because the kids never gave up,” Eastern Kentucky University coach Dean Hood said. “For a minute, they had a chance to knock us out and it wouldn’t even have been a game. But we just kept hanging in there and battling.”

The Cardinals certainly seemed ready to put the Colonels away at halftime.

In the opening half, Louisville got two touchdown runs from Bilal Powell, a long TD pass from Adam Froman and had almost three times as many yards total offense as EKU (290 to 99).

“Guys just have to finish the game,” Strong said. “Guys get relaxed, thinking the game is over and their focus and concentration misses. We will have to talk about at halftime is that we still have 30 minutes to play. So let's not sit back and relax. Let's keep playing and keep playing hard. That is what we didn't do.”

Still the lead remained at 23-0 until late in the third quarter when Jeremy Caldwell delivered the biggest defensive play of the game. After missing last week’s season-opener because of an injury, the junior defensive back picked off a Froman pass and returned it 80 yards for a touchdown with 5:00 left in the third quarter.

It was the third time in his career that Caldwell had returned an interception for a touchdown.

“If you throw it in his direction, you better be on the edge of your seat because you might miss something,” Hood said.

Led by Caldwell, the Colonels allowed just 98 yards in the second half.

“We had a little talk (at halftime),” Caldwell said. “We just came together.”

T.J. Pryor, a Louisville native, sustained a groin injury in the first half and played through the pain before being replaced by redshirt freshman Brendon Gregory in the third quarter. Pryor was seven-of-14 for 91 yards and also ran for 14 yards on seven carries.

“He showed an incredible amount of toughness staying in as long as he did,” Hood said of Pryor.

In his first college action, Gregory was four-of-nine for 47 yards. He was intercepted once and sacked five times.

Still, he helped the Colonels put together a 10-play, 80-yard drive, which included a 48-yard run by Matt Denham, which resulted in a touchdown pass to Lumpkin.

“He proved himself in the spring,” Hood said of Gregory. “We knew he was a capable backup.”

The loss was the fifth straight for the Colonels, matching their longest losing streak since 1972.

But there were still plenty of positives for EKU.

“It just gives us confidence,” Caldwell said of the 10-point loss. “We came out, worked hard and we shut them out in the second half.”

The Colonels had the chance to put points on the board, but Logan O’Connor’s 43-yard field goal attempt went wide right with 3:55 left in the first quarter.

The Cardinals quickly took advantage, putting together a nine play, 75-yard drive which Bilal capped with a 2-yard on the second play of the second quarter.

“We just hurt ourselves with holding penalties and dropped passes,” Pryor said. “We are just killing ourselves.”

Louisville pushed the lead to 9-0 just six minutes later when EKU’s Nathan Watts was called for holding in the end zone, which resulted in a safety.

The Cardinals got a 42-pass from Froman to Doug Beaumont with 3:12 left before the half, then Powell added a 3-yard TD run with just 38 seconds left in the half to take a 23-0 lead.

After finishing just 35 yards rushing last week in a season-opening loss, the Colonels had 92 yards against Louisville. Denham had a team-high 48 yards rushing, while Lumpkin had 23 yards on eight rushes.

Orlandus Harris had a team-high five catches for 70.

Powell finished with a game-high 92 yards on the ground and Froman was 15-of-23 for 219 yards.

EKU is set to return to action Saturday at Chattanooga.



The Colonels did not look good at all. They had way too many penalties and didn't really put to gether a good drive all night.
#3
The Colonels did not look good at all. They had way too many penalties and didn't really put to gether a good drive all night.
Westside, I disagree. Yes, we had plenty of mistakes but there were also plenty of positives. We played a really good football team and shut them down the second half. Not too shabby if you ask me. We correct the silly penalties and we will be heading in the right direction. GO COLONELS!!!
#4
Strong gets win #1 but it was not pretty. Going to be a long year for Lville.
#5
BIGREDDAWG Wrote:The Colonels did not look good at all. They had way too many penalties and didn't really put to gether a good drive all night.
Westside, I disagree. Yes, we had plenty of mistakes but there were also plenty of positives. We played a really good football team and shut them down the second half. Not too shabby if you ask me. We correct the silly penalties and we will be heading in the right direction. GO COLONELS!!!


I hope you're right. And I agree. GO COLONELS!!!
#6
Looks like it was a decent game from the Colonels!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
LOSERS QUIT WHEN THEY'RE TIRED, WINNERS QUIT WHEN THEY HAVE WON

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