RICHMOND, Ky. - Coach Roy Kidd's Eastern Kentucky University Colonel football team will try and shake a two-game losing streak Saturday when EKU travels to Cookeville, TN, for an 11:30 a.m. (CDT) regionally-televised contest with Tennessee Tech University on FOX SportSouth Television Network.

Eastern, ranked 25^th this week in The Sports Network poll and 27^th in USAToday/ESPN poll, fell behind early again last week, this time 21-0 to Murray State, and could not recover in falling to the Racers, 28-21. Eastern now stands 3-3 on the season and 1-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Tennessee Tech, meanwhile, was winning a 31-24 overtime decision against UT Martin to raise its overall record to 2-4 and its conference record to 1-3.

"Tennessee Tech always plays us tough, no matter where they play us," Kidd said. "I don't like losing. We have to do a better job coaching and our players have to do a better job playing for us to be successful."

Junior quarterback Jon Denton led a furious Colonel comeback that fell just short. On the afternoon, he hit 22-33 passes for 315 yards and two touchdowns, upping his national rating in pass efficiency to 10^th at 156.0. For the second time this year, Denton received OVC Newcomer of the Week laurels from the OVC office for last week's performance against Murray State.

MSU stifled Eastern's running game, limiting the Colonels to just 34 yards on the ground as a team. Sophomore tailback Brian "Bull" Durham again received the bulk of the running chores for the Colonels, rushing 16 times for 63 yards and scoring one TD. Junior tailback Derick Logan had nine carries for 24 yards, while playing on an injured ankle.

Sophomore tailback Corey Crume, who injured his ankle on the first play from scrimmage against Tennessee State, did not dress for the Murray State contest. However, Crume has returned to practice and could see some action Saturday afternoon at Tech.

With all the defensive secondary's attention to EKU's outstanding senior wideout Rondel Menendez, sophomore Alexander Bannister stepped up for his career-best day as a Colonel as he hauled in seven passes for 115 yards and a score. He was helped by senior flanker Brian Brenneman and sophomore wideout Anthony Boggs who each caught four passes. Menendez was held to two catches for 38 yards.

Defensively, linebacker Charles Tinsley and tackle Jason Muchow had big afternoons for the Colonels. Tinsley was credited with nine tackles, while Muchow had six stops, a tackle for loss, two quarterback hurries and a caused fumble.

Team statistics through six games show Eastern averaging 147.8 yards on the ground and 199.3 yards passing per game, while EKU opponents are averaging 142.7 yards rushing and 233.5 yards passing.