Coming into Saturday’s Battle Of The Bluegrass Kentucky and Louisville were heading in different directions. The Cards had won five of six while the Cats had lost five of seven after starting 4-0. As usual when it’s a rivalry game all that can be thrown out the window. In front of a big crowd on Senior Day at Kroger Field UK dominated every facet of the game as Kentucky retains the Governor’s Cup 26-13.<\/p>\n
Coming into Saturday Scott Satterfield’s <\/a>club was second in the nation in takeaways. However, the Cats flipped the script forcing three turnovers while committing zero. After forcing a punt on Louisville’s opening drive UK put together one of their better drives of the year going 86 yards in five plays. The last eight came on a Will Levis<\/a> to Dane Key<\/a> touchdown. On the next series,\u00a0J.J. Weaver<\/a> stripped Brock Domann<\/a> on a sack returning it to the six. That drive ended with a Matt Ruffolo<\/a> field goal and it was 10-0 Cats. Another made field goal made it 13-0.<\/p>\n Late in the second quarter,\u00a0Malik Cunningham<\/a> relieved an ineffective Domann leading the Cards to a score right before the half. The Card’s star quarterback missed the win over North Carolina State with a shoulder injury and hadn’t practiced much in the last two weeks.<\/p>\n Trevin Wallace<\/a>‘s third-quarter interception of Cunningham set up a Levis to Barion Brown<\/a> touchdown putting the game out of reach at 23-7. He was injured on the play and Domann returned to the game. He did throw a touchdown to Tyler Hudson<\/a> that cut the lead in half. That was all the scoring as Kentucky retains the Governor’s Cup 26-13 over Louisville.<\/p>\n In their last game at Kroger Field, both Levis and Chris Rodriguez <\/a>went out on a high note. The potential first-round pick completed 11 of 19 passes for 189 yards and two touchdowns. He built on his strong game against Georgia.<\/a><\/p>\n If you read our game preview <\/a>we said a big game from Rodriguez was needed for a Kentucky win. That’s exactly what happened as C-Rod rushed 24 times for 120 yards. That pretty much lined up with his career average of 123 yards against Louisville.<\/p>\n For anyone who’s followed the Cats this season one of their biggest Achilles heels has been special teams. To be more specific the field goal-kicking game. Coming into Saturday Ruffolo had only hit on 12 of 20 field goals. In addition, he’d made 23 of 25 extra points. Many of the misses were the result of bad snaps.<\/p>\n However, on Saturday, it was a different story as the senior made a career-high four field goals and both extra points. As a result, Ruffolo was given the\u00a0Howard Schnellenberger<\/a> Award as the game’s Most Valuable Player. In the process, he becomes the first kicker to win the award. Let’s also give a shout-out to long snapper Cade DeGraw<\/strong> and holder Chance Poore<\/a> who came up big when Kentucky needed it.<\/p>\n Congratulations to — Louisville Sports (@SportsinLou) November 26, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nBig Day For The Seniors<\/h3>\n
A “Special” Shout Out<\/h3>\n
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Matt Ruffolo. Matt received the Howard Schnellenberger Award today, given annually to the mvp on the winning team in the Governor\u2019s Cup game between #UofL<\/a> and #UK<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/EOfsUJggwI<\/a><\/p>\n