BOX SCORE

MOREHEAD, Ky. --The Morehead State football team prevailed over Central State 17-10 in the season opener at Jayne Stadium Thursday night as head coach Jason Woodman and his staff kicked off their era with a win.

Running backs Tre Davis III and Chance Harris combined for 151 yards rushing, and Connor Genal added 128 passing yards in the Morehead State attack. Matthew McClelland led the Eagles' defense with 11 total tackles.

"Central State had some guys that challenged us schematically, and it was nothing short of what we expected," said Woodman, who came to MSU following 11 years at Fairmont State (W.Va.). "In the first half, we had some trouble running, but we went in at halftime and made some adjustments. I thought we ran the ball much better in the second half. I have to give the offensive line a lot of credit. We also talked all week about not turning the ball, and we took care of the ball. That ultimately was one of the factors that led to the win."

After a slow start, veteran running back James Louis got his team on the scoreboard first. Louis capped off a 10-play, 77-yard drive with a one-yard push into the end zone at 12:54 of the second quarter for the 7-0 lead.

Less than four minutes later, though, CSU QB Kendall Boney was able to crash across the goal line to finish off a 71-yard drive. At 8:39 in the second, the teams were tied at 7-7. 

MSU took a 10-7 lead thanks to a 35-yard successful field goal by sophomore kicker Thomas Schwartz V as he converted with 3:10 left in the half after an 11-play, 42-yard march. But, the Maruaders tied it back up into halftime when Jose Chaires was true on a 31-yard boot through the uprights with just nine seconds left in the half.

Harris rambled in from 18 yards out with 11:50 left in the game for what proved to the winning points. Davis III set up the score when he rushed 19 yards and 17 yards on the first two plays of a quick four-play scoring drive.

"We knew we had four or five running backs who could give us some depth, so it was good to see Chance have some good runs. We weren't really sure about (Tre) Davis coming in as a transfer, but we put him in there in some difficult situations and he really kind of impressed us," said Woodman. "We had to do some different things formationally and threaten them with some RPO (run-pass option) stuff, and we were able to finally do that."

While not turning the ball over themselves, MSU's defense came up with big plays, including a first career Eagle pickoff for defensive back Jalen Henderson. He thwarted a CSU pass deep in MSU territory and returned it 21 yards while leaping over a would-be tackler on the return. 

The home team also held the visitors to just 2 of 12 on third-down tries and had six tackles for loss. Linebacker Luke Bauer made two of the those in the Marauder backfield. Lineman and co-captain Paul O'Brien registered 1.5 tackles for loss.

MSU finished with a slight edge in total offense, 283-247. One-hundred, fifty-five (155) of the Eagles yards came on the ground after only having 20 in the first quarter.

The Eagles now await their next challenge when they host Kentucky Christian on Saturday, Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. ET.