MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State Football rolled up 600 offensive yards, including a pair of 100+ yard rushers and a 100+-yard receiver, as the Eagles rolled to a 45-28 Family Weekend victory over Kentucky Christian at Jayne Stadium Saturday evening in front or more 7,000 fans.
MSU evened its 2025 mark at 2-2, concluding its non-conference season with the program's seventh all-time win against the Knights (against no losses), from nearby Grayson.Â
"I thought we did a really good job of controlling the ball and running the ball effectively," said head coach
Jason Woodman. "Time of possession was a big factor too. It seemed like we were able to control the clock (MSU had a 40:12 to 19:48 advantage). We know we've got some things to clean up before next week and PFL play, but I was overall pleased with our effort tonight."
Quarterback
Carter Cravens set a career-high with four touchdown passes and also rushed for another, throwing two TD passes to leading receiver
Ryan Upp. He caught seven passes for a career-high 139 yards. Upp moved to seventh place on the MSU career receiving yards list, moving past Athletics Hall of Famer Nick Feldman. Upp now has 1,737 yards on 121 catches. The catch figure ties former Eagle and PFL Offensive Player of the Year BJ Byrd for fifth place in program history with 121.
Cravens talks about his performance and the offensive outburst.
The rushing game also saw its high moments as Tennessee State transfer
Craig Cunningham reeled off a career-best 138 yards on a career-best 20 carries, while
Isaac Stopke posted his first career 100-yard effort with 102 and a touchdown. MSU rushed for 289 yards, the most for the program since Oct. 16, 2021 when MSU piled up 363 versus PFL foe Butler.
Cravens finished 18-of-23 for 311 yards. He had two 39-yard scores to Upp, a 34-yard connection to open the scoring to wideout
Montez Green, and a 38-yarder to
Anthony Ice. His rushing TD came from five yards away.
Stopke scored on a four-yard jaunt in the second quarter, and kicker
Jordan Price nailed a 25-yard field goal to account for the Eagles' 45 points.
KCU scored a 75-yard breakaway by running back Jovari Gamble and got three touchdown passes by quarterback Jackson Wasik - all three connections to wideout Jason Cobb.
MSU built up a 31-7 lead heading into halftime before KCU struck with a short TD pass as time expired in the half. MSU scored a pair of TDs in the third frame and led 38-14 and 45-21 before the Knights chalked up a final six-pointer and PAT with 3:37 remaining.
Defensively, the Eagles saw KCU churn up 363 yards.
Jackson Benjamin led the defense with five tackles and three pass break ups.
John Purdy had a pair of tackles in the Knights' backfield, and
Josh Bowling and
Paul O'Brien each notched sacks.
"Their drive before the half, we had two penalties that gave them extra possession, and that's obviously something we can correct but we don't want to happen," said Woodman. "Overall, defensively we could have performed better, but these are all things that are fixable, and we will be okay."
Morehead State opens PFL play next weekend at Presbyterian at 1 p.m. ET.
