Western Kentucky football coach Tyson Helton acknowledged last week’s season-opening blowout loss at No. 5 Alabama left a bad taste in the Hilltoppers’ collective mouths.

A 63-point shutout defeat will do that.

Eastern Kentucky provided the minty-fresh remedy to the Tops’ malady Saturday night in WKU’s home opener at Houchens-Smith Stadium. The Hilltoppers’ defense shined, the offense got rolling and a 31-0 shutout victory of an old state rival did much to cleanse those palettes in front of a friendly home crowd.

“Just happy for our football team – excited to come home in the home opener and get a win like we did tonight,” Helton said after the Tops’ first shutout victory since a 73-0 shellacking of Florida International two years ago. “Really proud of our defense. It’s hard to pitch a shutout. Those don’t come too often and coach (Tyson) Summers, defensive staff and players did a fantastic job.

“I really thought we moved the ball really well on offense. The obvious is we’ve got to finish drives, got to put the ball in the end zone. Had a couple of fourth-down stops there in the red zone, but saw a lot of great things as a team tonight, a lot of players made plays and that was good to see.”

In his second start for WKU (1-1), redshirt junior quarterback TJ Finley delivered a strong debut at Houchens-Smith by completing 27 of 39 passes for 351 yards and a touchdown. The Texas State transfer kept the offense moving despite a couple red-zone stalls.

A big defensive play helped get the Tops going in the first quarter after EKU (0-2) stopped WKU on downs on a fourth-and-3 at the Colonels’ 8-yard line. Linebacker Darius Thomas swooped in as part of a blitz and sacked Eastern Kentucky quarterback Matt Morrissey, popping the ball loose for a fumble that teammate Terrion Thompson recovered at the EKU 22.

“They came out in a two-by-two, so I disguised it and I baited it up,” Thomas said. “It all fell into place.”

Four plays later, WKU senior running back Elijah Young scored on a 1-yard run one play after tight end River Helms nearly got into the end zone on a 17-yard reception that was initially ruled a touchdown before being overturned on review.

That assist from the defense, which was shredded for 600 yards in the opening-week loss to the Crimson Tide, was much appreciated by Young.

“Shout out to the defense for sure,” Young said. “We was telling them all week, ‘Y’all got this. We don’t want to see nothing on the board at all.’ Really, to see them actually doing that and telling them that they’ve got to believe in each other, it just showed that it pays off.”

Young’s short touchdown run put the Tops up 10-0 after Lucas Carneiro had connected on a 29-yard field goal earlier on WKU’s opening possession.

WKU wasn’t quite through with the Colonels in the first half. After forcing a punt, the Tops started on their own 16 but didn’t stay there long. Finley fired a completion to senior Kisean Johnson in the middle of the field, and the Alabama State transfer made that modest gain much more with a run after the catch for a 42-yard reception. Johnson had a big night, finishing with six receptions for 119 yards.

Six plays later, junior running back L.T. Sanders reached the end zone for the first time in his career on a 2-yard touchdown run that put the Tops up 17-0 with 3:41 left in the first half.

After a scoreless third quarter, Young (team-high 52 rushing yards) got his second touchdown of the night on a 9-yard run to boost the Tops’ lead to 24-0 with 7:07 to play.

The Tops thwarted the Colonels again and Finley cashed in with his first touchdown pass as a Hilltopper, finding Dalvin Smith on 12-yard touchdown pass on a third-and-10 play. That play put the bow on a nice rebound performance for Finley, who passed for just 92 yards and threw a pair of interceptions before sitting out the second half in favor of backup Caden Veltkamp in the season opener against Alabama.

“We had our ups and downs and what I told the guys in the fourth quarter after we scored that last touchdown was this was a great game for us as far as building chemistry,” Finley said. “We went through what we went through at Alabama with going scoreless. To see that first touchdown for the 2024 season for us was big. I told the guys also we had a little adversity, right? We got to the red zone three or four times and came up with zero points in the first half and told those guys we have to continue to improve in that area if we want to win this conference.

“I think we did a good job toward the latter part of the game getting down there and actually putting some points on the board. It was a good win for us.”

The victory stretched WKU’s winning streak to four in the rivalry game dubbed “Battle of the Bluegrass,” with the Colonels’ last win coming in 2006 when both programs were at the FCS level.

The Tops have another rivalry game this coming Saturday when they head to Johnny “Red” Floyd Stadium in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to take on “100 Miles of Hate” foe Middle Tennessee (1-1) in the first Conference USA game of the season for both teams. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. CT.{&end}