RICHMOND, KY  – On this warm and sunny afternoon at Roy Kidd Stadium, on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University, in Richmond, Kentucky where Thoroughbred horses are known to free and fast, it was the EKU Colonels who got off to a fast start as the Governors of Austin Peay State University were defeated, in overtime, 13-10.

On the game’s opening kickoff the Governors allowed the Colonels’ kick return specialist, Jeremy Caldwell, to return the ball 62 yards to the APSU 29 yard line, before being forced out of bounds, by safety Amius Smith and placekicker Isa Ziolkowski.  Then on the game’s very first play from scrimmage the Colonels scored the game’s first touchdown.
“I think we missed covered on the kick, but I’ll have to look at the film to see, and then the next play that they scored a touchdown! They didn’t even wait two plays,” said Governors’ head coach, Rick Christophel, with excitement.  Using an option play, Colonels wide receiver Cody Williams took a lateral pass from quarterback Allan Holland to hit fellow wide receiver Shannon Davis on a 29 yard touchdown pass that would put the Governors down 7-0, following the extra point kick by Taylor Long.  Then with 3:52 left in the first quarter Long put three more points on the board for the Colonels, with a 27 yard field goal, to give them a 10-0 lead.  It was at that point when Christophel, thought he and his players might need to dig in for a long night.  “I thought we might be here all night, they way they were scoring, and that the score might end up being 85-0 they way got off,” said Christophel.  But that was not the case as the Governors’ defense got deep down in the trenches and held the Colonels scoreless for the remainder of the half.  “Defensively, I think the whole defense played well. Daniel Becker and Kevis Buckley played really well,” said Christophel. “I think Kevis (Buckley) may have had two interceptions and Daniel Becker was all over the field making tackles.”  For the game Becker, the Governors middle linebacker, and free safety Tremayne Townsend led APSU with five solo and four assisted tackles, for a total of nine each.   Buckley recorded two interceptions, one in the third quarter and one in the fourth, returning both for a total of five yards, to help keep EKU out of the end zone during the periods, while the Governors were mounting a comeback to tie the game, 10-10.

“We made some decisions at halftime to do certain thing on defense, and our kids responded. Offensively I think the best thing that happened to us is that our offense kept the ball a little bit and kept our defense off the field, which gave us some opportunities to do the things we did on defense,” said Christophel.
Their Governors’ first score came at 11:02 of the third quarter, when their wide receiver Lanis Frederick caught a 37 yard touchdown pass from their quarterback T.C. Jennings. And with the extra point, kicked by Isa Ziolkowski, APSU had narrowed the gap EKU had on them by three points.
With EKU and APSU in a very, very, tough defensive battle for most of the game, it wasn’t until there was just one second left in the game’s fourth quarter when the Governors would score again. And it would be Ziolkowski who did the scoring, putting the ball through the uprights form 27 yards out, for three points, thus giving the Governors a fighting chance to win the game, that went into overtime.  In the overtime period it would the Governors who had the first shot at winning the game, after winning the overtime coin toss.
However, after two shotgun plays in which the Governors’ running back Theo Townsend took the ball, moving it from the 25 yard line to the 17, four yards at a time, he was dropped for a two yard loss, on third down.  It was there after, on fourth down, when Ziolkowski failed on the golden opportunity for his foot to be again praised, by coaches, teammates and APSU fans, among those 7,100 fans in attendance, by missing, wide right, on a 36 yard field goal.  With that, the Colonels took full advantage, not wasting the chance to score, even though they did commit just one penalty on the drive, a second down false start for five yards.  However, they did manage to move the ball from the 25 yard line to the 10, on three shotgun plays of their own. The first of those plays was a 14 yard rush by running back C.J. Walker, that put the ball on the 11 yard line. The next was a second down 6 yard pass from Holland to Davis that moved the ball down to the 10 yard line. And the third was a no gainer by running back Aaron Bradley, who was stuffed at the line of scrimmage.  So it was then, on fourth down, when Long came out and kicked the game winning field goal, from 27 yards out.  The next game for the Governors, as they attempt to their first game of the season, is 7:00 p.m. (ET)/6:00 p.m. (CT) Saturday, October 4th, at home against their OVC foe the Racers of Murray State University.

Having beaten Murray State last year in the Racers’ season finally Christophel is well aware of how the Racers just might approach this weekend’s game against them.
“I’m sure they’ll be ready to play us because we got after them last year and beat them at their place, the last game of the year, so we’ll go back home from here, regroup, look at some film and get ready to play them,” said Christophel.