2023 MAC Football Week 2 Game Recap: Minnesota Golden Gophers 25, Eastern Michigan Eagles 6

Going into this one, I honestly thought Eastern Michigan (1-1) was going to emerge victorious in this one. Minnesota (2-0) is roughly the tier of Big Ten team that Eastern has beaten in recent years, but sometimes, it’s not meant to be.

The Eagles and the Gophers would exchange punts until the quarter end, with the score tied at zero, a dragging start as both defenses were establishing the pace of play early. The Gophers would open the second quarter with a 24-yard field goal by Dragan Kesich. Jesus Gomez of the Eagles would answer that with a field goal of his own.

The Golden Gophers would score the first touchdown of the day with a 93 yard drive capped off by a two-yard run by Darius Taylor. The Eagles would close the half with another field goal to make the score 10-6 after getting deep into Gopher territory. This would be the last time the Eagles scored.

Dragan Kesich would get a field goal in the third quarter to make the score 13-6. Athan Kaliakmanis capped off a 64-yard drive with a one-yard run for a touchdown to make the score 20-6. Eastern Michigan would cause a safety as the Minnesota player could keep his foot inbounds, this made the score 22-6. Minnesota would finish the game with another field goal to make the final score 25-6.

Eastern Michigan’s Austin Smith finishes the game by going 9-of-20 for 71 yards with one interception. Samson Evans would rush for 73 yards. Minnesota’s Athan Kaliakmanis would finish the game going 10-of-15 for 117 yards, but he didn’t really need to much as Minnesota would establish their run game. Darius Taylot got 193 yards on the ground. He was followed by Sean Tyler with 93 yards.

The Golden Gophers defense was able to put the clamp on the Eagles in the second half as the Eagles did not get a first down.

Eastern Michigan looks to shake this loss off when they host the Minutemen of Massachusetts at Rynearson next weekend.