The Missouri State Bears came up with four turnovers from the visiting Western Kentucky Hilltoppers but couldn’t sustain enough offense to take advantage of all of them and came away on the short end of a 17-14 Gateway Football Conference decision to the Hilltoppers Saturday at Plaster Field. The Bears’ fifth straight loss dropped them to 1-6 for the season and 0-3 in Gateway play while Western Kentucky evened its season mark at 3-3 and moved to 2-1 in the league.
Bears’ LB Jeremy Dawson stole two passes, one of which he returned for a touchdown, and LB Derrick Byrd and DE Chris Wash had fumble recoveries in the game while Missouri State didn’t turn the ball over at all. The turnovers the Bears got, however, weren’t enough to keep Western Kentucky from big margins in possession time and total offensive yardage as the Hilltoppers controlled things up front despite the absence of their leading all-time rusher Lerron Moore, out with an injury. The Bears missed field goals on their first two possessions of the contest, scored the third time they had the ball, and were then forced to punt seven straight possessions from the start of the second quarter until the middle of the final period.
The Bears were also shorthanded as starting quarterback Matt Krapfl has been lost for the season with a knee injury. Garrett Congdon replaced Krapfl but completed just 8-of-22 passes for 118 yards. TB Michael Cooper got some big holes and rambled to the Bears’ first 100-yard rushing game by a player this season but Western Kentucky got 117 yards from TB Andrew McCloud and 80 from TB Tyrell Hayden while veteran senior QB Justin Haddix was a very efficient 23-of-30 through the air for 259 yards.
Overall, the Hilltoppers outgained Missouri State 446-251 and had a 36:21 to 23:39-minute advantage in possession time to largely eliminate the effect of the four turnovers.
The Bears stopped WKU on three plays after the opening kickoff and Dawson stole a pass from a WKU receiver to get the ball for the Bears. Missouri State marched into the WKU red zone but missed a 37-yard field goal. WKU got onto the board as Haddix floated a 40-yard scoring pass over the middle to WR Curtis Hamilton who caught the ball between two defenders to score. On the ensuing kickoff, KR Eric Davis of the Bears got a 79-yard runback to the WKU 21 but Missouri State again couldn’t move and Stokes was again wide right on a 39-yard field goal try.
Derrick Byrd recovered a fumble on WKU’s next possesion and the Bears covered 62 yards in just five plays, capped by a long 37-yard pass from Congdon to WR Tamarkus McElvane. McElvane caught the ball in traffic but fumbled and WR Jeremy Nicholson grabbed the ball from the two and carried it into the end zone for a TD. Western Kentucky again answered with a 7-play, 74-yard drive and a five-yard scoring run from McCloud. WKU got the ball back and K Chris James nailed a personal best 54-yard field goal, the second longest in WKU history, on the final play of the half to make the intermission score 17-7.
The second half saw both teams swapping punts much of the time. The Bears blunted another WKU score with Wash’s fumble recovery on the MSU one, and WKU had a long touchdown run called back on a holding pentlty. It was still 17-7 when Dawson again yanked the ball from a WKU receiver and carried it 58 yards for the second MSU touchdown. The Bears’ ensuing onside kick attempt went out of bounds and WKU ran out the clock.
The Bears hit the road to face Indiana State in a league game next Saturday (Oct. 21) in Terre Haute, Ind.. Kickoff time is 1:00 p.m. (CDT).
