Morehead, KY – In the blink of an eye in the third quarter of Saturday's game at Morehead State, the Stetson Hatters had a chance to take the lead turn into a 23-point deficit at Jayne Stadium.
The Hatters were never able to recover, falling to MSU 41-18 to see their three-game win streak come to an end. Stetson goes into the final week of the 2014 season with a 5-6 mark overall, and a 3-4 record in Pioneer Football League play. Morehead State improved to 4-7 overall on the year, 3-5 in conference play.
The Hatters had all the momentum on their side after a bad snap on a Morehead State punt attempt early in the third quarter turned into a 25-yard Ryan Powers touchdown. The Hatters went for two after the score, trying to tie the game at 20, but Ryan Tentler's pass attempt fell incomplete.
The inspired Hatters' defense forced another MSU punt and Stetson quickly marched into the red zone with a chance to take the lead. With a second and goal at the Eagles' seven, Tentler went for the end zone but his pass, intended for Darius McGriff, came up short and was intercepted by Justin Grier.
“We got down there and you could feel the wind go out of our sails on that pivot route,” Hatters coach Roger Hughes said. “For whatever reason, we didn't play with the same intensity or focus today. We didn't do enough, on the road against a team that, offensively is pretty hot right now.”
From there, the Morehead State offense took control of the game. The Eagles had scoring drives of 80, 66 and 70 yards over a seven-minute stretch on the clock to put the game out of reach.
MSU sophomore quarterback Austin Gahafer took his team on his back, completing 11-of-13 passes on those three scoring drives, passing for 124 yards and two scores.
“Their offense is set up like basketball on grass,” Hughes said. “They throw the ball outside and we didn't do a great job of tackling and we weren't getting pressure on whim without blitzing or bringing an extra guy. When you do that, and he has time to throw, bad things usually happen.”
White not quite a track meet, the first half was certainly offensive in nature. It was not until the final two possession of the half that either defense was able to keep their opponents off the board.
Stetson opened the scoring with a 15-play drive, but stalled in the red zone before Jordan Acham connected on a 20-yard field goal. It was his first field goal attempt of the year.
Morehead State answered with an eight-play scoring drive that was capped by a 30-yard screen pass from Austin Gahafer to Rees Macshara. The snap on the PAT was bad, resulted in a run, which came up short, leaving the Eagles with a 6-3 lead.
Stetson answered with another nice drive, but again stalled deep in Eagles territory. Acham came on and connected from 37 yards away to knot the score at 6-6 at the end of the first quarter.
“We didn't finish drives when we had opportunities,” Hughes said. “We knew they had been scoring a lot of points, and you have to finish in the red zone.”
Morehead State went right back to work against the Hatters, driving 72 yards in eight plays. Macshara ripped off a 47-yard run to the Stetson three before Rob Harden punched it in. Luke Boy's PAT kick gave MSU a 13-6 lead.
Stetson answered again, driving 62-yards in 13 plays, with Tentler hitting Chris Crawford for the final 14. Acham's PAT attempt was blocked, leaving the Hatters with a one-point deficit, 13-12.
Morehead State again responded, putting together an eight-play drive. Brandon Bornhauser set up the score with a 25-yard run out of a wildcat formation, and then finished the drive with a two-yard TD run. Boyd's PAT put the Eagles up 20-12 at the half.
Stetson wound up with four turnovers in the game, three on interceptions in the red zone.
“I coach the quarterbacks and we didn't put the ball where we needed to,” Hughes said. “We had some big runs, but then Cole put the ball on the ground. We played like freshmen today. We have two days to lick our wounds and five days to get ready for a very good Drake team.”
Mazza finished the day with 118 yards on 16 carries to lead the Stetson offense. MSU got 126 yards on the ground for Macshara to go with 314 through the air by Gahafer, who completed 32-of-40 passes with three touchdown.
“This week will tell a lot about how we have matured, or if we have matured,” Hughes said. “I thought we were further along, but today we didn't play very well. You'd like to think you could put success behind you and move on with the same intensity, but I don't know if that happened. That is part of the maturing process. We have to take this set back and find a way to come back.”
