By Anthony Shingler | Assistant Sports Editor
Early mistakes doomed APSU in the 30-20 loss to No. 24 Eastern Illinois Saturday, Sept. 26, in the Ohio Valley Conference home opener at Governor Stadium.
With the win, Eastern Illinois is off to a 4-0 overall start, 2-0 in the conference, their best since 1996. Conversely, APSU falls to 1-3, 0-1 OVC. APSU is 8-29 in conference openers.
“We didn’t come out and play the first half, and it was the same thing from last week,” said APSU head coach Rick Christophel.
In the first quarter, APSU had one punt blocked and a 10-yard punt downed at the APSU 29-yard-line. Taking advantage of great field position, the Panthers led 21-0 before APSU could get any offense brewing or even record a first down.
After an Eastern Illinois three and out that forced a punt, APSU took over with 7:16 left in the first half at their own 32-yard line. The Govs marched the ball down the field 68 yards on eight plays to get on the scoreboard. Terrance Holt jolted from 13 yards out to cut lead 21-7 for one of his two touchdowns on the night. Eastern Illinois tacked on a field goal to take a 24-7 lead at half.
“Our offense put our defense in some bad situations, I thought our defense played pretty decent from the first quarter on,” Christophel said.
The Govs defense turned up the heat by holding Eastern Illinois to a three and out again in the second half. The Govs went on the field with a seven play, 48 yard drive. Holt’s second score of the night cut the lead to 10, 24-14.
“The first half and second half were two different ball games,” Christophel said.
The Panthers added a field goal to make the score 27-14 in the fourth quarter. After a fumble by Gary Orr, the Panthers marched down the field and made another field goal to push their lead to 30-14.
“At times he played pretty well. Other times he didn’t do what he needed to do and that put us in a bind,” Christophel said.
“It was 24-14 I think and we have the ball going in on the 40 yard line, and boom boom boom we make three mistakes.”
The Govs got the ball back with one minute left in the contest. They added success by a score on an Orr three-yard toss and catch to Scott Thomas to cut the lead to 30-20. The Govs failed on the two-point conversion.
“He was (finding his rhythm) and that’s why I kept going with him because he was throwing the ball in the right places on those crucial drives,” Christophel said.
The Govs attempted an onside kick, but did not recover it.
The Govs produced 251 yards offense. The Panthers averaged 425 yards in the previous three games. However, against the Govs they were held to 243 yards of total offense.
“There’s no reason we can’t play like that every game,” Christophel said.
“You’re going to make some mistakes, but play hard and play aggressive.”
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