The Ashland University football team has been putting themselves behind the eight ball the past four weeks getting off to slow starts each game. After being able to recover win the first three games, the slow starts finally caught up to them with their 42-41 double overtime loss at Wayne State this past weekend.

The Eagles were able to recover from a 35-7 deficit and forced overtime. Ashland even put themselves in a position to win the game in the first overtime getting a stop as the Warriors were on offense first in the overtime period.

The eagles however stumbled to the finish this week missing a game winning field goal and having an extra point attempt blocked in the second overtime, which would be the nail in the coffin as they would give up the game winning touchdown on the next play.

Head Coach Lee Owens on how appreciative he was that his team never quit said, “Most teams are down 35-7 and just don’t want to get blown out. Our guys were like we can still get back into this game.”

The Eagles were able to get back in the game with halftime adjustments to their defense. The offense played with a sense of urgency rattling off 34 unanswered points up until they gave up the game winning touchdown.

Defensive Coordinator Tim Rose on the defense said, “This week the start of the game had nothing to with the offense we were undisciplined and played uncharacteristically. This past Saturday was an anomaly it was a lousy coaching job and we played sloppy and somehow we were able to put ourselves in position to win the game.”

Even with a terrible start to the game, the defense and offense were able to regroup and ended up with opportunities to win this past game but came up short.

“We usually handle our business and the offense handles their business. They haven’t affected us one bit over these past four games. We are up to whatever the challenge is, but our goal is to keep the opposing team under 20 points or less,” Rose said.

Except that goal was not achieved this past weekend at Wayne State. The defense had an unusually bad first half, but they hope to team it up against Michigan Tech this week.

“We need to come out this week and really get after it because we haven’t played well at home this season,” Owens said.

The Ashland University football team now looks to bounce back from the loss and look to get off to a quick start at home on Saturday Oct. 26 when they take on Michigan Tech at 1:00 pm.