FINAL STATS
MOREHEAD, Ky. – After falling behind 14-0 early in the first quarter, the Morehead State Football team ran away with a 73-34 victory over nearby foe Kentucky Christian thanks to a huge second-half effort on Saturday afternoon at Jayne Stadium.
MSU outscored the Knights 42-6 in the second half after taking a narrow 31-28 lead into halftime. Morehead State is now 2-1, starting with that mark for the first time since 2009.
Running backs
Issiah Aguero and
Jovan Smith eclipsed the century mark in yardage as the Eagles racked up 283 rushing yards.
Aguero, a junior from Knoxville, Tenn., ran for a team-best 115 yards on 17 carries and also scored a touchdown. It was Aguero's second 100-plus yard rushing effort of 2019.
Smith carried the ball 15 times for 106 yards and a career-best three touchdowns.
Morehead State sophomore quarterback
Mark Pappas threw for 252 yards and two scores – both going to junior receiver
Landon Hurst. Hurst led the Eagles in receiving with a career-best tying 92 yards.
Defensively, Morehead State forced two turnovers with junior defensive back
Kalen Carson intercepting his first career pass and senior linebacker
Beau Griego recovering a fumble. Griego led the Eagles with eight tackles.
Next up, Morehead State will travel to Murray State Saturday for a showdown with the program's former OVC rival Racers. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. ET at Roy Stewart Stadium.
KEY STATS
* The teams combined for 930 total offensive yards.
* Morehead State was 50 percent (8-of-16) on third downs while holding KCU to just 1-of-17 on third downs.
* Junior kicker
Andrew Foster averaged 49.3 yards on three punts, including two downed inside the five-yard line. He also nailed a 42-yard field goal to put the Eagles on top for good at the half.
* Aguero, Smith, Hurst and
Ian Holder all piled up more than 100 all-purpose yards.
*
Aaron Turk returned a kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter, the second consecutive season he has a kick return to the end zone.
* The 285 yards make it now 289 rushing yards per game in the Eagles' two home games.
* Aguero and Smith both eclipsing the century mark rushing was the first time since playing KCU in 2017 that two backs went over the century mark.
* In limited action late in the game, defensive lineman
Jacob Wilde led the team with two tackles for loss.
QUOTING COACH TENYER
"It was a horrible start, but we got the kickoff return to create a little buzz on the sidelines. We knew we would have our hands full on defense. They had a couple of really nice weapons at receiver. We weathered the storm and kind of lost our energy for a bit but we battled back. KCU should have a nice year in their conference, they have some athletes who can really compete."
"As a far as a product goes, I thought we were much better on the field than in the first two weeks."
"I told our guys there are going to be some games like this where we have to outscore some teams, and there might be some low scoring games too. Folks are going to score on our defense and some weeks we'll score a lot on their defense. If we want to compete for a PFL championship those are the types of games you play in. Games when you have to come back from being down and others when you need your defense to make a stop to win."
"I told our team after we were down 14-0 that if we continue to play fast and hard, then we will wear them down."
