Story by Keith Jaco
Staff Writer
The Murray State football team opened up its 2018 season at home Thursday night, as it battled Southern Illinois-Carbondale under the lights at Roy Stewart Stadium.
The Racers struck first in the contest with a 25-yard field goal from junior kicker Gabriel Vicente as a result of a strip sack from senior linebacker Quincy Williams. This would be the only lead the Racers would hold, as Southern Illinois quickly responded with an eight-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Sam Straub to senior wide receiver Darrell James.
The Salukis wasted no time tacking on to their lead, as consecutive Racer turnovers led to Southern Illinois taking a commanding 21-3 lead with just over four minutes to play in the first quarter.
An interception by sophomore linebacker Anthony Koclanakis helped propel the Racers to an eight-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back D.J. Penick with a minute remaining in the first half. Murray State failed to hold SIU-Carbondale scoreless for the remainder of the first half, giving up a three-yard rushing touchdown to backup senior quarterback Matt DeSomer with 14 seconds remaining in the half.
Southern Illinois kept its foot on the gas, opening the second half with a three-yard rushing touchdown from senior running back Jonathan Mixon. The Racers’ problems on offense continued with a fumble by Penick, recovered by freshman safety Michael Elbert and returned for a Saluki touchdown.
Following Elbert’s fumble return, SIU added one more touchdown on a 29-yard DeSomer touchdown pass to junior tight end Nigel Kilby.
The Racers were held scoreless in the second half. They were faced with numerous setbacks due to inconsistency on the offensive side of the ball.
Head Coach Mitch Stewart’s main concern following the contest Thursday night was the high number of turnovers. The Racers finished the night with six total turnovers, three leading to touchdowns.
“If you turn the ball over six times, it ain’t gonna go very well for you,” Stewart said. “Especially if three or four of them end up in points.”
Stewart was adamant about reminding his team that mistakes like turnovers can set the tone for the game.
“Tonight I told the boys in the locker room Murray State beat Murray State,” Stewart said. “You can’t go out there and beat yourself, and tonight we did. At the same time [I’m] very optimistic, because that’s a pretty easy and tangible that our players can see. When we come back and watch the tape and go through those plays, that’s very easy for them to recognize where we went wrong.”
Quincy Williams had the biggest impact on defense for the Racers and was vocal about the Racers making adjustments going forward.
“Basically, we just gotta go back to the fundamentals of football,” Williams said. “Catching the ball, holding the ball in, looking the ball in and holding the ball high and tight.”
Despite the mishaps on offense, Stewart did take away some positives from the Racers’ outing against Southern Illinois.
“I thought at times we ran the ball well and seemed to have some open space out there,” Stewart said. “I think that’s a huge positive and I think there’s a lot of things in that ballgame that we’re gonna turn around and look at and say ‘man, we did this pretty good, we did that pretty good’, but there’s always gonna be the pink elephant in the room, and that was six turnovers.”
Following it’s season-opening defeat, Murray State will travel to Conway, Arkansas, Saturday, September 8, and look to bounce back when it faces the Central Arkansas at 6 p.m. at Estes Stadium.
