Tech football took a hard loss to rival Murray State University Saturday, losing 70-35.
The score wasn’t because of heavy turnovers by Tech, since they only committed two. It wasn’t because of a heavily powered defense by the Racers, as Tech was able to gain 461 yards of offense. Tech simply didn’t execute on certain plays.
“They executed, and we didn’t,” Justin Matheney, student assistant coach, said. “When you play a team like Murray and don’t execute, you wind up getting beat.”
After punting on the first drive, the Golden Eagles gave the ball to the Racers on Tech’s 31 yard line which set up for a quick three play, 31-yard drive for Murray State, giving them a 7-0 lead.
The Golden Eagles answered quickly with a five play, 67-yard drive capped off by an 18-yard touchdown pass from Tre Lamb to Cody Matthews.
After answering with a drive that took 1:59, things took a turn for the worst for the Golden Eagles.
Murray State scored an unanswered 28 points, all coming by the run, except for a 70-yard punt return that put Murray State up 28-7.
Tech finally answered back at the 3:41 mark with a 14-yard Bud Golden touchdown run but couldn’t ever get back into the game. Murray State was able to answer every score Tech made the rest of the game.
“I’ll tell you what it wasn’t,” Matheney said. “It wasn’t because the team wasn’t trying. We had a group of guys who absolutely played their tails off.”
The Golden Eagle offense moved the ball fairly well throughout the game gaining 298 yards in the air and 163 on the ground. The offense was able to complete a high number of plays from scrimmage at 77.
They took decent care of the football, only turning it over twice via one interception and one fumble. Murray State put the ball on the floor three times but was able to recover two of them.
One remarkable aspect of the game for Murray State was that they committed zero penalties the entire game. Tech committed nine, giving the Racers 80 yards.
“This league is getting better every year,” Matheney said. “You have to play at the top of your game every week, or you’re going to get knocked off. The good news is, it’s only one game.”
Tech will look to bounce back and pick up its first conference win tomorrow against Jacksonville State University.
JSU is 2-2 (1-1 OVC) and coming off a 31-16 win over Southeast Missouri State University.
“I know the players are excited to play this Saturday to get this bad taste out of our mouths and to get this thing back on track,” Matheney said.
Tech will play the Gamecocks tomorrow at home at 7 p.m.
