BOX SCORE
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Morehead State surrendered 31 first-half points to drop a 39-0 Pioneer League game to Jacksonville Saturday afternoon at D.B. Milne Field.
The Dolphins racked up 393 yards of offense, 291 of which came in the first half. Morehead State held the JU ground attack to 61 yards.
"We'll start with a positive, because that's who we are. We were pretty good against the run today," MSU coach Matt Ballard said. "But I was disappointed in our production and disappointed in our execution."
Jacksonville scored three times in the first quarter, starting with a three-play drive to open the game, capped by a pass by McGregor to a wide open Josh Philpart.
The Dolphins were stalled on the next drive and JU punter Logan Chipperfield shanked a 13 yard punt, giving MSU the ball at the JU 33. An intentional grounding penalty pushed the Eagles back 15 yards and Jason Wood then picked off a Zach Lewis pass and returned it 52 yards for the score.
McGregor set a JU record for touchdown passes with the Dolphins' third score of the first quarter on a 17-yard pass to tight end Christopher Kuck. McGregor added another TD pass on the Dolphins first possession of the second quarter, connecting on a six-yard pass to Tommie Rogers. Donovan Curry added to the JU lead with his first field goal of the season, a 31-yarder following three incompletion by McGregor.
The Eagles did a better job in the second half, holding Jacksonville to a single touchdown and only 102 yards of total offense. McGregor and Philpart connected for the score at 7:55 in the third quarter. Morehead State blocked the extra point try, but the carom fell into the hands of a Jacksonville player, who advanced it for two.
MSU had a couple of opportunities to avoid the shutout in the fourth quarter, the first after Cameron Armstrong intercepted a pass and returned it to the JU 13. Jared Phillips was hit hard two plays into the drive and fumbled on second down. Phillips had another chance on Morehead's next drive, throwing a perfect fourth-down 30-yard pass to Drew Morgan, but Morgan was unable to hold on.
"We're so young and so inexperienced," Ballard said. "Bless our hearts, they're working so hard, they want to catch it so badly that they can't catch it."
Morehead was 10-of-30 through the air, using all three quarterbacks (Evan Sawyer, Phillips and Lewis). Desmond Cox had 11 carries for 33 yards to lead the Eagle backs.
"As bad as it looked, and as much of a comedy of errors as it's been, we're so close," Ballard said. "We've got to be like a mallard duck and let the water roll right off of our back. We need to just play and not worry about the scoreboard and not worry about the down and distance and just play."
Defensively Wes McDermott made 11 tackles to lead MSU, Andrew Doan had 4.5 tackles for loss and Derik Steiner had 3.5 tackles for loss. Doan and Steiner each had a sack.
Morehead State returns home next Saturday for a homecoming game against new Pioneer League member Marist at 1 p.m. at Jayne Stadium. Jacksonville will be at PFL opponent San Diego at 4:30 p.m.