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Football Eagles Face First Road Test at Liberty Saturday
Football Eagles Face First Road Test at Liberty Saturday
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MOREHEAD, Ky. --
Facing its first road test of the 2017 season, the Morehead State football team travels to Liberty on Saturday. Kickoff from Williams Stadium in central Virginia is at 6 p.m. ET.

The Eagles are coming off a 56-14 win over Kentucky Christian in the season opener last Thursday, while Liberty scored one of its biggest program wins with a 48-45 upset at FBS foe Baylor.

"I think our first game was really efficient on both sides of the ball," said head coach Rob Tenyer. "We really did not get sloppy until late in the second half. Looking ahead though, these are some very important weeks. We want to make major progress from week one to week two and from week two to three and so on."

Morehead State will be facing a Liberty squad that racked up more than 500 total offensive yards, including 447 passing yards at Baylor. The Flames also had a 100-yard rusher.

"We'll have our hands full with a really superior football team in Liberty," said Tenyer. "They are well coached, very disciplined and very athletic, but I am excited and I think our players are up the challenge."

Meanwhile the Eagles will look for the same production they got last week when redshirt junior quarterback Lawson Page threw for 284 yards and four scores on 21-for-23 passing in his first collegiate start. Running backs Roberto London and Logan Holbrook bulled their ways to 133 yards and 104 yards, respectively. Defensively the Eagles limited the Knights to only 35 passing yards.

"Defensively I think we held them to only about 3.6 yards per play, so I was pleased with our hard work and effort on that side of the ball," Tenyer said.

Following Saturday's action, the Eagles will face Austin Peay on the road next Saturday at 7 p.m. ET. The Govs are former Pioneer League rivals of Morehead State.

GAME NOTES

THE LIBERTY SERIES
Morehead State trails 5-3 in the all-time series with Liberty, but this will mark the first meeting since Oct. 5, 1991 when the Eagles defeated the Flames 12-10 on Craig Bere's game-winning field goal in Morehead with 23 seconds left. Morehead State has never defeated Liberty in Lynchburg, trailing 4-0.
 
ONE TOWN.ONE TEAM
Morehead and the region have shown tremendous support for the Eagle football program, and in fact MSU has led the Pioneer Football league in attendance for four consecutive seasons. Last year, MSU averaged 5,736 and drew 5,846 to the season opener last week.
 
PLAYING THE BIG BOYS
Saturday will mark the fifth consecutive season Morehead State has faced an FCS top-25 team on the road and ironically the last three also came in Virginia. The Eagles lost to eventual national champion James Madison (ranked 12th at the time) last year and also the year before when the Dukes were 12th. In 2014, it was at No. 20 Richmond. In 2013, the string began with a game at No. 25 Youngstown State.
 
THE PAGE HAS BEEN TURNED
Redshirt junior QB Lawson Page turned some heads last week in his first career start. He was 21-for-23 for 284 yards and four touchdowns, completing his first 15 passes. Last season he was the third and fourth-down situational QB and did not attempt a pass. Page leads the nation in completion percentage (91.3) and ranks second in passing efficiency (243.7).

VIRGINIA CONNECTIONS
The Eagles have two players on the trip from Virginia and one who transferred from a school in Virginia. Starting offensive left tackle Josh Hall is from Hampton, while slot receiver Tray Ashby-Phan transferred from Hampton. Linebacker Kirk Peterson is from Woodbridge.
 
HISTORY WAS MADE
Redshirt freshmen running backs Roberto London and Logan Holbrook made MSU history last week versus Kentucky Christian. The duo both rushed for more than 100 yards and became the first pair of program history to both rush for 100+ yards in their first career games.
 
GOOD COMPANY
Roberto London and Logan Holbrook both rank in the top 30 nationally in rushing yards following week 1 in the Football Championship Subdivision.
In fact, Morehead State was ONE of only FIVE FCS school to have two 100-yard rushers in the same game last week - joining North Dakota State, Portland State Northern Arizona and Cal Poly.
 
300 CLUB
Morehead State rushed for 311 yards last week against KCU. That total was the second highest since 2012 and just the second time the Eagles had totaled 300+ rushing yards as a team since 2012 as well.
 
DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE
The Eagles' 35 passing yards allowed and the 24.5 percent passing efficiency allowed against KCU both rank fourth in the nation.
 
WHAT'S COOKING
Senior cornerback Braylyn Cook ranks second in the nation with three passes defended last week, including an interception. Cook leads all active players with 37 career passes defended. The FCS career record had been held by former Eagle David Hyland with 61 (record held from 2007 until 2014).

BOOM SHOCKA LOCKA
Redshirt freshman punter Bradley Boone would lead the nation in punting, averaging 63.5 yards, if he had punted more than twice last week. Both his punts pinned the KCU team inside its own 15-yard line.



 
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