Box Score A pair of defensive touchdowns early in the second half gave Campbellsville University sole control of Saturday's game, as the Fighting Tigers mounted a 48-30 win over Mid-South Conference rival Lindsey Wilson College in front of a sellout crowd at Finley Stadium.
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Coming out of halftime with a narrow, 28-21 lead, Campbellsville senior linebacker
Trey Mayes scored his first collegiate touchdown after picking off Lindsey Wilson quarterback Ricky Bowling on the first play from scrimmage. The 36-yard interception return was followed on the next defensive series by a fumble recovery in the end zone by
Dwight Houston, busting the game wide-open for Campbellsville, 40-21., and giving the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the MSC East.
The game didn't start off so smoothly for the Tigers though. After 30 minutes of play, CU was battling possession-by-possession with the first-year program. More than 100 yards of penalties was the large culprit.
"Lindsey had some good players, and they do a good job, but I thought we had a ton of penalties that added to their drives and took away from ours," CU head coach
Perry Thomas said. "The penalties are just killing us. Right now that's our Achilles heel. It's not so much our opponent. When we eliminate our penalties and turnovers, we're a tough football team, defensively and offensively."
The Tigers' first costly penalty came early. After surprising the Blue Raiders with a second-down, 64-yard wide out pass from
Geoffrey James to
Demetric Ray, the CU drive stalled inside the red zone.
David Hon, who entered the game perfect on the season, hit a 35-yard field goal for CU's first points, but an illegal motion penalty took the points off the board. Hon's next try from 40 yards was no good.
It was the first of 16 penalties for the Tigers, a season high.
Campbellsville received its first points of the game on its next possession, a 12-play, 61-yard drive that ended with a short quarterback sneak by
Robert Hill for a Tiger touchdown. Hon's point after touchdown (PAT) was good for a 7-0 lead.
The Tigers fumbled on their own 25 yard line the next possession to set up Lindsey Wilson's first score, a 13-yard pass to freshman Richard Kennedy. Kennedy went on to score three first-half touchdowns and collect 73 all-purpose yards in the first half. Kennedy finished with 98 all-purpose yards in the game.
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We didn't do a good job on Kennedy. We had a plan on him and just didn't do a good job on him in the first half. The second half I thought our guys did a little better job on him, and he wasn't much of a factor after that," Thomas said.
CU freshman
Gerwan Brewer immediately answered the Blue Raiders' first score with a 25-yard touchdown run. The Louisville, Ky., native had 199 all-purpose yards in the first half and finished with 218 yards in the game and three tackles on special teams.
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He played lights out football today. He made two or three tackles on kickoffs, and everyone saw his offensive highlights," Thomas said.
Nathan Cooper made his second appearance of the season at quarterback late in the second quarter and led the Tigers with 156 yards passing and two touchdowns. Cooper closed the first half by tying the game, 21-21, on a 6-yard pass to
Harold Small and led a scoring drive in the final minute en route to a 2-yard
Mark Terry touchdown run.
Due to the two defensive scores to start the third quarter, the Tigers' first offensive series of the second half did not come until there was less than eight minutes left in the quarter. Neither team scored an offensive touchdown in the third quarter though, as CU punted its first possession and had a bad snap on a punt during its second possession, which resulted in a safety for the Blue Raiders.
The Tiger defense forced two turnovers late in the third quarter, achieving its defensive goal of three takeaways in a game. Linebacker
Brandon Hillary had the third in the quarter with a sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery with three minutes left in the quarter. The fourth LWC turnover of the game was on the final play of the third quarter, when
Detrick Briggs picked off a potential touchdown pass.
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Campbellsville had two turnovers, both resulting in Lindsey Wilson touchdowns, as the Blue Raiders recovered a fumble to start the fourth quarter and scored its final touchdown on a 5-yard run from Greg Young.
Terry added another touchdown in the fourth quarter for the Tigers' final score. Terry achieved his personal goals of 100 yards and at least one touchdown per game. His 104 yards on 24 carries led the Tigers' 198-yard rushing attack.
Campbellsville (3-2, 2-0 MSC East) travels to Pikeville College for a MSC East game next Saturday, Oct. 2 at 1:30 p.m. ET. Â
"We felt like we'd lost our swagger a little bit against Wisconsin-Whitewater. We weren't aggressive and flying around. When you do that it create the takeaways and gives you opportunites to score. We were able to do that today ... I thought the defensive line as a whole got after them today. They gave us some pressure without having to stunt a lot and were able to control the box and give us eight men deep in coverage."
On re-establishing a Tiger rushing attack
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I thought our offensive line did a good job. If we don't have penalties we feel like we can run the ball well. We thought we would be able to run in it and we were able to, now the penalties took us out of position a few times though."
On quarterbacks Nathan Cooper and Robert Hill
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I thought Nathan stepped in there with some confidence. He got a few good reps two weeks ago and in practice. It looks like he's getting a little more velocity on his ball. His ability to throw the ball does a little bit more for our offense. I also thought
Robert Hill got some confidence today."
Campbellsville Quarterback Nathan Cooper
On the Tiger offense
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The penalties are killer, but I think our offense is starting to click. We had a good week of practice, especially on Wednesday and Thursday. We're not where we want to be, obviously because of the penalties and we put the ball on the ground a few times, but we're getting there."
On re-establishing a Tiger rushing attack
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Our offensive line did a great job sticking to their assignments and Mark (Terry), Wayne (Coffee) and Brew (
Gerwan Brewer) just went off today."
On the rivalry with Lindsey Wilson
"Everyone was saying that this was a rivalry, but it's the first game we've ever played against them, so it's not a rivalry in my mind. It may be for them now that we've beat them. I look forward every year, coming back and playing them."
On the Mid-South Conference race
"We're in the driver seat. We just need to come out and play one game at a time and execute. As long as we can execute and play consistently, we're going to be hard to beat."
Campbellsville Linebacker Trey Mayes
On his interception
"He just threw it out to the flats. It hit me, and I was gone. This was my first one. I had a fumble recovery last year and got hopped down on the 1. I had to get that one."
On the defense
"The linebackers haven't really been strong, not at all. We need to step it up every week. We've been getting it done, but it's not our ordinary play though."
On Coach Perry Thomas' halftime talk
"He told us we had to come out and play harder. I don't know why but every game it takes a couple of series and we give up a couple of points before we figure it out. Coach just told us to come out and play harder, and we never doubted. We never doubted."
