The Murray State Racers football team played their home opener on Sept. 6 against Southeastern Louisiana, with a loss of 45-24.
Besides being the home opener, it was also Family Weekend on campus. The attendance at this weekend’s football game was 15,027 people, the largest Family Weekend attendance in program history.
“That was an absolute electric atmosphere, credit to our University,” said head coach Jody Wright in his opening statement in the post-game press conference on Saturday evening.
Southeastern Louisiana was the first on the scoreboard, with 9:56 remaining in the first quarter. Murray State also managed to get themselves on the board, as redshirt freshman Jordan Washington had a 21-yard run for a Racer touchdown with 3:31 remaining in the first.
Southeastern Louisiana was the first to score in the second quarter, with a 12-yard run with 14:11 remaining in the second. The Racers kicker, graduate student Jack Tannehill, completed a 30-yard field goal with 10:26 left in the second quarter. MSU kept their defence tight, but the Lions were able to score two more touchdowns before the quarter was up. Going into halftime, the Racers were down 28-10 at Roy Stewart Stadium.
The Lions were once again the first to score in the half, completing a 21-yard field goal with 4:27 left in the third quarter. That was all the action for the third, but MSU was quick to add to their score in the fourth quarter. Redshirt sophomore Cam Bullock caught a 37-yard pass from redshirt freshman Jim Ogle, scoring another Racer touchdown with 14:16 remaining in the game. Bullock spoke briefly about this play in the post-game press conference.
“We’ve been running this type of play for a long time you know,” Bullock said. “If it opens up like that all we know is don’t get stopped.”
Continuing on in the fourth, Southeastern Louisiana scored right back, with a five-yard run for another touchdown for the Lions with 10:20 left in the game. Murray State senior Jawaun Northington scored another touchdown for MSU, on a one-yard run with 8:49 left in the fourth quarter. The Racers stayed strong on their defence, but the Lions managed to score one last touchdown on a 26-yard run with 33 seconds left in the ball game, making the final score of the Racers home-opener 45-24. In the post-game press conference, redshirt freshman Conlee Crossno, former quarterback turned linebacker, spoke a little about how the Racers are going to move forward from this loss.
“It’s definitely a lot of steps to build on, we have that inside of us,” Crossno said. “We are not gonna give up at any part of the game.”
With a record of 0-2 on the season, the Racers football team will travel to Atlanta for week three to play Georgia State on Saturday, Sept. 13.
