Saturday, November 25, 2006

Sigh

We'll have to wait another year for an OVC playoff victory, but we got as close today as we have in years. Here are the finals:

Southern Illinois 36, UT-Martin 30 - From the box scsore at ESPN.com, it looks like UT-Martin sloyly ran out of gas while SIU gradually picked up steam. The Skyhawks had a 21-7 lead at the half, then stretched it to 27-7 before the Salukis rattled off three straight touchdowns to take a 1-point lead. UTM answered with a late field goal to retake the lead, but SIU scored with less than a minute remaining to seal the win. Martin running back Donald Chapman had a good day with 108 yards and two TDs, but SIU's Arkee Whitlock outclassed him in the end, getting 207 yards and four scores. UTM's dream season comes to end, but look to be strong contenders next year.

Illinois State 24, Eastern Illinois 13 - Eastern's defense appeared to keep them in the game, giving the the Panthers their only touchdown of an interception to take the lead in the fourth quarter at 13-10, but Illinois State eventually got things going, scoring to take the lead with just over two minutes left, then returning an interception of their own for the final. Had the Panther offense showed up for the game they might have had a chance. ISU held them to 138 yards overall, with Cole Stinson earning just 79 yards on 15 of 30 attempts, and running back Vincent Webb getting a mere 54 yards.

Even with the losses, the OVC appears to have narrowed the gap considerably this year. With plenty of strong teams returning, and other hoping to see success in rebuilding their programs, next year could be when the league finally turns the corner. This year, we'll have to settle for peeking around it.

1 Comments:

At 9:54 AM, November 26, 2006, Blogger Maynard said...

It's hard to be positive about it when you realize that we had a shot at winning TWO playoff games in the same year, though. I kept watching the Martin score at the bottom of the screen and was absolutely sure they were going to win. What a disappointment.

Though hopefully this showing will convince some people we deserve multiple chances next year (if we do) so we can have some more shots at the superior conferences.

 

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