The losing streak continues for the Eagles. The team has gone 18 games without a win, six this season, and Saturday’s game at Vanderbilt didn’t provide much hope for a “W” anytime soon.
The Eagles gave up 24 points unanswered in the second quarter, and were unable to really compete. Sophomore Alex Gillett went 10-for-20 and could only muster 99 yards. Two of these were caught by tight end Garrett Hoskins for 41 yards. Junior Corey Welch was stymied on the ground, only able to put 55 yards on 18 carries.
Vanderbilt got on the board early when Vanderbilt’s John Cole returned a Jay Kuretz punt 54 yards to the Eagle’s one yard line, then on first and goal, quarterback Larry Smith punched it in for a 7-0 lead.
The Eagles responded with a drive of their own, with 10:20 left in the first the Eagles went on a 72 yard drive that included three first-downs, took 4-minutes and 29 seconds off the clock and ended in an EMU 22-yard Sean Graham field goal. The Eagles went in to the second half down 7-3.
From that point on it was all Vanderbilt. The Commodores scored on 4-of-5 of their possessions in the second quarter, including a two-play 69-yard drive that ended on a Larry Smith pass to receiver Umoh Udom.
The Eagles had a chance to put another touchdown on the board when Steve Brown recovered a fumble at the Vanderbilt 25-yard line.
The Eagles went nowhere after the recovery, and had to settle for another field goal from Sean Graham to make the score 31-6.
Vanderbilt went on to score 21 more unanswered, even getting back-up quarterback Jared Funk into the game for the entire fourth quarter.
A bright side for the Eagles? EMU only took two penalties for 20 yards the entire game. Vanderbilt took 6 penalties for 39 yards. Punter Jay Karutz averaged 39 yards a punt over nine tries, his longest netting 46 yards.
Vanderbilt finished with 558 total yards on offense, four touchdowns and 353 yards through the air and three touchdowns for 205 yards on the ground. Zac Stacy was Vanderbilt’s leading rusher with five carries for 90 yards and one touchdown.
Vanderbilt quarterback Larry Smith was effective going 16-for-27 with two touchdowns and 253 yards. Jared Funk came in briefly to complete three-of-four passes for 100 yards and a touchdown.
The Eagles will head to Ball State (2-4, 1-1 MAC) next Saturday at 1 p.m.; the Cardinals are coming off a 45-16 loss to Western Michigan (2-3, 1-1 MAC).
