Eastern wins 26-21 on miracle final play SPORTS

By Rick Bailey

Herald-Leader staff writer

RICHMOND –– “My first thought was pure joy,” said Eastern Kentucky’s Sean Little after scoring the winning touchdown.

The first thought for everybody else in the place was pure shock.

In a finish for the ages, Eastern Kentucky edged NE Louisiana 2621 here last night.

On the game’s final play, with the ball at the NE Louisiana 39, Indians center Chandler Tatum snapped the ball over the head of punter Chad McCarty. The ball rolled down the field with McCarty and 11 Colonels in hot pursuit. McCarty reached the ball just short of the goal line.

“(McCarty) dove on it,” Little said. “It popped out, and I got it.”

“It was going into the end zone pretty quick,” McCarty said. “I knocked it into their legs. Their force knocked it into the end zone, and they recovered it.”

“The (players) wanted to run the clock out,” NE Louisiana Coach Dave Roberts said. But he chose to punt the ball. “All we gotta do get the foot on the ball and it’s over,” he said. “We got what we deserved.”

What the estimated 17,200 fans got were six lead changes and an incredible finish to a taut game between two Division I-AA powers.

“I was so excited because I knew we had won,” Little said. “My one thought was, ‘It’s celebration time.’”

“Please don’t ask me (about the play),” Tatum told Jeff Duncan, a reporter from the Monroe (La.) News-Star.

Earlier, it appeared that three Colonel turnovers in the fourth quarter would send EKU to “its” first loss in a home opener since 1962.

In fact, Mike Penman’s second fumble of the quarter gave the

Indians possession at midfield with 2:18 left.

But NE Louisiana was unable to run out the clock. Facing fouth-and-11 from their 49, the Indians let the clock run down to six seconds before taking a delayof-game penalty. Then, they were charged with illegal procedure. That took the ball back to the 39. Then, they lost the game.

The game’s not over till it’s over,” Eastern Coach Roy Kidd said. “When I saw the ball go over his head, I said, ‘We’ve got a chance.’ I thought we could recover it before time ran out and kick a field goal.”

The start of the game was just as explosive as the finish ––beginning with the opening kickoff, which Easterm’s Leon Brown returned 98 yards for a touchdown. It took him 16 seconds to start to the right, then angle across the field to outrace the Indians to the goal line.

Brown had a 100-yard kickoff return to open the second half in Eastern’s 21-7 victory over Western Kentucky two weeks ago.

But Northeast Louisiana countered with a 69-yard scoring march that took almost six minutes.

Ches Liles, making his first start at quarterback in the last seven games, ended the drive with an eight-yard scoring pass to Vincent Brisby with 9:01 left in the first quarter.

But Eastern’s Brad Ladd roared through to block Rob Tallent’s extra-point kick.

After recovering an EKU fumble, the Indians went on another time-consuming drive climaxed by a four-yard Liles-toBrisby pass on fouth down.

But Ladd broke up the twopoint conversion pass.

The teams exchanged punts until Eastern took a 14-12 lead with 12:04 left in the second quarter.

All-American Markus Thomas took off around the right side. Seemingly hemmed in, he cut across the field and raced 71 yards to paydirt.

The run elevated him to third place in Ohio Valley Conference career rushing, regular-season games only.

The teams exchanged two punts before Northeast Louisiana took a 15-14 lead 12 seconds before the break on Tallents 35yard field goal.

Eastern went ahead 20-15 barely four minutes into the second half.

Tatum’s high snap forced McCarty to attempt a pass rather than punt on the first series.

The pass was incomplete, Eastern declined a penalty and the Colonels took over on the NE Louisiana 21.

Six running plays left Eastern with fourth down at the 3. Duffy lined up for a field goal, but holder Jason Thomas ran the ball in untouched.

Markus Thomas was stopped just short of the goal line on the two-point attempt. He suffered a mild concussion and handled the ball only two more times.

“I felt like I was hit with a sledgehammer,” Thomas said. “I was feeling woozy, and I was afraid I might drop the ball.”

Northeast Lousiana regained the lead at 21-20 following a Joey Crenshaw interception. Robinson ran for nine and 26 yards, then scored from the 1 with 8:14 to play. Brisby couldn’t handle the conversion pass for two points.

Eastern then drove to the enemy 16, thanks in part to a 35-yard romp by Crenshaw, but Penman fumbled away the ball.

Penman also fumbled on the first paly of Eastern’s next possession. But Northeast Louisiana failed to run out the clock, and fate intervened.