The Eastern football team was not the only Ohio Valley Conference team to lose over the weekend. Eight out of the nine teams in action lost their non-conference matchups.

It was not a good day around the OVC, mostly because the scores were lopsided. OVC play begins in two weeks. Morehead State and Austin Peay, however, will take each other on to open conference play.

Ole Miss 45, Tennesee Martin 23

An upset was brewing with Tennessee-Martin and SEC opponent Ole Miss as the Skyhawks had a nine-point lead in the second quarter, but Ole Miss started to play like Ole Miss and eventually won 45-23.

Although the Skyhawks ended up losing big to the Rebels there was a silver lining to come out of it. Tennessee-Martin racked up 334 yards on offense including 253 on the ground. The downside to that is that Ole Miss had no problem dominating on the offensive side of the ball.

Quarterback Shea Patterson threw for 489 yards to lead the offense to a 543-yard day. He also had five touchdown passes in the win.

Kentucky 27, Eastern Kentucky 16

This was another case of an OVC team not being able to hold a lead. Eastern Kentucky led for almost three full quarters. The Colonels led 16-10 after a field goal, but the Wildcats marched down the field on the ensuing drive with a touchdown and ran away with the game from there.

Running back Benny Snell had a 25-yard touchdown run to take the lead 17-16.

The Colonels got the lead by scoring 13 unanswered points after Kentucky got a field goal on its opening drive. Eastern Kentucky’s opening drive resulted in a touchdown capping off a 75-yard drive on nine plays.

Georgia Tech 37, Jacksonville State 10

Jacksonville State did not quite blow a lead like Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee-Martin did, but they definitely did let the game slip away.

The Gamecocks trailed 10-7 at half but three turnovers in the matter of 10 minutes blew the game wide open for Georgia Tech. Jacksonville State led early in the second, but from that point on Georgia Tech scored at will.

Georgia Tech did its scoring off big plays. On its four straight touchdowns, Georgia Tech scored on a 27-yard touchdown pass, a 23-yard touchdown pass, a 10-yard pass, and a 65-yard touchdown run.

Eastern 10, Northern 38

Eastern did not play its best game, and it led to a big loss.

Heading into next week, coach Kim Dameron said all sides of the ball need improvement before playing Illinois State Saturday.

Last year the Panthers beat the Redbirds and won the Mid America Classic Trophy. The Redbirds are a talented team, just as the Panthers faced against Northern.

Rest of the OVC scores:

Dayton beat Southeast Missouri 25-23, Miami Ohio beat Austin Peay 31-10, Central Arkansas took down Murray State 41-13, Kennesaw State beat Tennessee Tech 27-14. Tennessee State was the lone winner for the OVC Saturday with a 17-15 win over Jackson State.

Sean Hastings can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]