The Apollo Eagles had their fair share of opportunities, but some struggles on special teams and multiple turnovers led to a 48-34 home loss to Murray to open the 2025 football season. Apollo showcased spurts throughout the night of excellence, highlighted by Caiden Tutt scampering 95 yards on a kickoff return for a touchdown and quarterback Maxwell Johnson’s three touchdown passes.
Yet, Head Coach John Edge was frustrated with his team’s mistakes, including a penalty that negated a punt return for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter.
“Bottom line is we need to keep fighting,” Edge said. “There were some positives, and we did some good stuff. Defensively, we did well early on, and then they kind of wore us down and got after us. On special teams, we have a lot to clean up. We returned a couple, and then they returned one. We have to clean up that type of stuff.”
Apollo’s opening drive started promising, but on the eighth play, a fumble handed Murray the ball on their own 30. The Tigers responded by marching down the field, but missed a 32-yard field goal. After both teams went three-and-out, the Eagles’ offense took an early 7-0 lead on a screen pass that Eli Williams took 44 yards to the house.
It took Murray less than a minute to respond, with the drive culminating in a 30-yard strike from Wyatt Robbins to Isiah Martin. Undeterred, Tutt returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a 14-7 lead.
Murray responded again, this time tying the game on a Martin 10-yard touchdown run.
With less than two minutes to go in the opening half, Murray took a 21-14 lead on Martin’s third touchdown of the game, this time a 25-yard reception. The Eagles responded in kind, with Johnson firing off a beautiful pass in the back corner of the end zone that Landen Bratcher was able to high-point.
Trailing by one entering halftime after missing the extra point, the Eagles started to beat themselves in the second half.
“We made some silly mistakes and got some penalties,” Edge said. “We can’t stand behind the chains, and when you get behind the chains, then you aren’t able to successfully run the football on a consistent basis.”
In the first minute of the second half, the Tigers took a 27-20 lead on a 65-yard touchdown pass. Less than three minutes later, Murray pushed its lead to 33-20 and was on the verge of running away with it.
Apollo tried to chip away, though, starting with Ross Millburn bulldozing his way into the end zone from five yards out to cut the lead to 33-27. Similar to the first half, Murray found a way to answer, returning a kickoff of their own for a touchdown. A successful two-point conversion pushed the lead to 41-27.
With less than three minutes in the third quarter, Johnson threw his third touchdown of the game, this time from two yards out to JT Edge.
Murray quickly marched back down the field and scored on a two-yard touchdown run to make it 48-34. Apollo had a couple of opportunities in the fourth quarter, but a penalty negated a punt return touchdown, and a fumble and an interception ended another pair of promising drives.
Despite the loss, Edge knows his team will continue to improve and doesn’t want to see them hang their heads.
“One game doesn’t define you,” Edge said. “It’s a long season, and you can still get better and play hard. We can’t let this one game bug us.”
