RICHMOND, Ky.?Taylor Long booted a 27-yard field goal in the first overtime to lift Eastern Kentucky to a 13-10 Ohio Valley Conference victory against Austin Peay State University, Saturday afternoon.

The loss dropped the Governors to 0-5 on the season, 0-2 in the OVC, while Eastern Kentucky improved to 2-3 overall, 1-1 in the OVC.

Long's boot came after APSU sophomore kicker Isaac Ziolkowski missed a 36 yarder on the Govs' overtime possession. However, it was Ziolkowski's 43-yard field goal with 0.6 seconds left that sent the game to overtime, offering APSU the opportunity to manufacture an upset against a team that had beaten it 21 straight times.

“I was really proud of this football team,” APSU coach Rick Christophel said. “The kids played their hearts out. When we got down 10-0 we hung in there. With everything that went wrong they just kept playing. We never rolled over?that's one thing about this football team...they won't quit.

“Eastern Kentucky is the defending OVC champions and could have just as easily beaten TSU last weekend. I told our players to hold their heads up; that we started to come together as a football team today.”

The Govs got to overtime by overcoming five kicking game mishaps, ranging from allowing long kick and punt returns, having two punts partially blocked and a roughing the punter penalty late in the game.  In fact, when the Governors were penalized 15 yards for the roughing penalty it appeared their chances to win or tie the game had ended with less than three minutes remaining.

But the defense, like it had done since early in the game rose to the occasion, forcing another punt. This time the Governors took over at their own 44. T.C. Jennings, who overcame a sluggish first half in his first quarterback start in place of the injured Gary Orr, ran 11 yards for first down.

Later, Jennings found Lanis Frederick with a 19-yard pass to the EKU 26. However, the drive stalled there, setting up Ziolkowski's 43-yard field goal, a boot that matched his career long.

The way the game started it didn't appear the Governors offense, defense or special teams was going to be able to hold EKU. It was the Governors kicking game that opened the door for the Colonels to score all 10 points first-half points.

The opening kickoff saw EKU's Jeremy Caldwell return the ball 62 yards all the way to APSU 29. On the opening scrimmage play EKU wide receiver Corey Watts hit Shannon Davis on an option pass TD. Before EKU fans could even sit down, the Colonels were up 7-0.

Later in the period the Govs saw Caldwell return a punt 35 yards to the APSU 30. The Colonels turned that play into a 27-yard yard field goal for a 10-0 lead.

APSU, meanwhile, generated little first-half offense as  Jennings and APSU played things conservatively.

Sophomore Trent Caffee, however, came off the bench to provide the Governors a lift at quarterback in the second quarter. In fact, he threw what appeared to be a 30-yard TD pass to Frederick but the play was called back because of a holding penalty. Then the drive self destructed.

Later in the half, Caffee had the Govs moving again only to see his long pass intercepted with 17 seconds left.

The Govs came out the second half with renewed energy, taking the opening kickoff and marching 77 yards, culminating in a 37-yard Jennings pass to Lanis Frederick to finally get the Govs on the board.

Two successive partially blocked punts by Eastern Kentucky were staved off by the Governors' defense, the second one being Kevis Buckley's second  interception of the day. Buckley entered the contest tied for second in the nation in interceptions (4/1.0 per game).

Austin Peay actually outgained Eastern Kentucky, 320-317, including a 178-to-77 rushing advantage. APSU also held a 36:42 to 23:18 time-of-possession advantage. The Governors converted 8 of 21 third downs and all three fourth-down attempts.

Individually, Theo Townsend rushed 18 times for 68 yards while Jennings had 61 yards on 11 attempts.

Jennings finished 12 of 23 passing for 90 yards while Caffee was 6 of 7 for 52 yards. Frederick had six catches for 97 yards. As a result, he became only the third player in Austin Peay history with 2000 receiving yards (he now has 2079). He also moved into third place for career receptions (143), passing both Pat Curran (139) and Mike Lewis (142) on the day.

Defensively, both Daniel Becker and Tremayne Townsend had nine tackles on the day. Becker had a tackle for loss included plus three quarterback hurries. Townsend, meanwhile, forced a fumble and picked off a pass.

-AP-