The Skyhawks traveled to Eastern Kentucky over the weekend looking to snap a OVC-road game losing streak that goes back to 1996. After the first three drives of the game, it looked as if they might.

Unfortunately, looks aren’t everything and the Skyhawks dropped their fourth conference game, 31-17.

On the first series of plays cornerback Ravon Sims intercepted a pass from Colonel quarterback Josh Greco at the EKU 26-yard line. The Skyhawks made the most of this turnover and scored on a 13-yard shotgun pass from Brady Wahlberg to running back Justin Glover.

This touchdown marked the first for the Skyhawks in the first quarters since they defeated Garder-Webb on Sept. 24, and only their third of the 2005 season.

On the Colonel’s next possession, Sims intercepted yet another pass by Greco on the UTM 27-yard line. The Skyhawks couldn’t increase their lead as Glover fumbled and EKU recovered the ball.

The Skyhawks retained the lead throughout the rest of the first, allowing just a total of seven EKU offensive yards in the quarter. On their first drive of the second, the Skyhawks put together a 12-play, 59 yard drive. Kicker Taylor Brown missed the first of his three field goal attempts, wide left from 32 yards out.

The Colonels then evened the score at 7-all on a 12-yard pass from Greco to EKU receiver Patrick Bugg.

The next drive saw Wahlberg throwing his first interception of the game. The Colonels took the lead off this possession and scored a touchdown on a 16-yard rush by running back Mark Dunn. Skyhawk defensive end Andre Plummer blocked the kick to keep the score at 13-7 as they headed into the break.

The Skyhawks’ second possession of the half found tailback Don Chapman committed the team’s third turnover on a fumble recovered by Colonel free safety Carl Hayden on the EKU 10-yard line. The Colonel’s were unable to capitalize on this fumble.

With a little over a minute left in the third quarter, Brown capped off a 66-yard drive with a 21-yard field goal to pull the Skyhawks to within three, 13-10.

UTM held EKU to a gain of just six yards on the next drive when linebacker Wade Peters blocked the Colonel’s punt and returned it to the EKU 21-yard line.

The Skyhawks were unable to get in the red-zone after the blocked punt and Brown missed another field goal, this one wide right from 43 yards out.

Just like after the first missed field goal, EKU took advantage of the Skyhawk error and scored on the next drive.

Colonel kicker Taylor Long added three points to the tally and gave EKU the 16-10 lead with just under 11 minutes to play.

Wahlberg threw his third and fourth interceptions of the game on the next two Skyhawk possessions. The Colonels marched the second of the two into the end zone to put them up 24-10 with 4:48 remaining in the game.

The Skyhawks took over control of the ball on their own 8-yard line and then made an impressive 92-yard drive down the field in just under a minute and a half. The drive resulted in a touchdown off a 20-yard rush by Chapman which pulled the score to 24-17.

The following EKU drive saw the Colonels taking advantage of the second UTM illegal procedure penalty of the day. Both came off an out-of-bounds kickoff by Brown. EKU scored the final points of the game on a 24-yard run by Dunn to put the final score at 31-17.

The loss puts the Skyhawks at 5-5 overall with a 3-4 worksheet in the conference.

Wahlberg was 21-for-37 with three interceptions for 261 yards on the game. He also picked up 39 yards on the ground.

Chapman picked up 104 yards of offense: 83 rushing and 21 receiving with one touchdown.

The leading receiver Saturday was Taurean Stephens with 101 yards, which puts him at third place among all UTM receivers.

Behind him was Glover with 80 yards including the opening touchdown of the game. Jamal Akbar also picked up 59 yards on the afternoon.

Cornerback Jason Coleman led the defense with 11 total tackles. Behind him were linebackers Markeseo Jackson with 10, David Gilmore with eight and rover Jack Greenwood with seven and the only Skyhawks’ only sack.

UTM now looks ahead to Thursday night’s season finale game against OVC rival Murray State.

MSU is currently 2-8 overall with a 0-6 conference record. The Racers are come to Martin after a 42-6 victory over Austin Peay State.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Graham Stadium.