CARDS ESCAPE

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LEXINGTON  Louisville football coach Bobby Petrino  looking much like a man who had just gotten a last-minute death row reprieve  walked into the interview room, sat down and exhaled.

"Whew," he said. "We're lucky to get out of here with a win."

Now there's an honest man.

Taken down to the wire by a gritty, tenacious Kentucky team that refused to lay down even when things looked grim, the No. 12 Cardinals  22-point favorites  were indeed fortunate to escape with a 31-24 victory in front of 70,752 fans Sunday afternoon in sun-splashed Commonwealth Stadium.

In winning the Governor's Cup for the sixth time in the last seven years and beating UK in Lexington for the fourth straight time, U of L dominated the first half but then was back on its heels for most of the second half and needed some last-minute defensive heroics to survive and dodge what would have been considered a huge upset.

In the end, mistakes by the young Wildcats is what doomed them, namely three lost fumbles.

"I'm very frustrated," UK coach Rich Brooks said. "Louisville is a heck of a team and we had an opportunity to do something pretty significant for this group of players. It just makes me sick to my stomach that we were so close and we came up just short. We had our chances."

After trailing 28-7 at halftime, unable to slow U of L's offense or generate any of its own, and seemingly out of contention, the Wildcats seized the momentum in the second half, closed to within the final score and appeared to be on the verge of a game-tying touchdown in the final minutes before the last of their three turnovers sealed their fate.

After sophomore tight end Jacob Tamme's 15-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Andre' Woodson pulled UK to within 31-24 with 11:52 remaining, U of L went nowhere on its next two series and Tamme partially deflected a Cardinal punt, resulting in a 10-yard kick that gave the Cats possession on the U of L 33-yard line with 7:21 remaining.

A seven-yard reception by Scott Mitchell and a 19-yard run by Arliss Beach gave UK a first-and-goal on the seven. Woodson then skirted left end and looked as he might score. But he was met at about the one by U of L senior linebacker Brandon Johnson, who wrested the ball away as they tumbled to the ground.

"Honestly, I don't know what happened," Johnson said. "He tried to square me up to run over me, I wrapped him up and felt the ball in my hands. We both went down and I don't know what happened after that."

Petrino, who was across the field, said he didn't have a clear view of the play, but it happened near the Kentucky bench and Brooks said he felt Woodson was down and it shouldn't have been called a fumble.

"From my perception, it looked like he was (down)," Brooks said. "I just don't understand why we have instant replay if we don't look at a pivotal play like that. All we have to do is look at it. I'm just bothered why we wouldn't stop and look at it at that stage of the game."

Louisville took over on its own two with 6:20 remaining and was able to run out the clock, mostly by handing the ball to junior tailback Michael Bush, who rushed six times for 20 yards and had a 33-yard touchdown run nullified by an illegal formation penalty. However, the biggest play of the drive was a 25-yard run by backup running back Kolby Smith that pushed the ball across midfield. The game ended with U of L on the UK 35.

The game marked the debut of U of L's heralded sophomore quarterback, Brian Brohm, who completed 19-of-27 passes for 179 yards and scored two touchdowns on a pair of one-yard runs. Brohm was 10-of-11 in the first half, but cooled off considerably in the second half, as did the entire U of L offense.

Bush wound up with 128 yards on 27 carries and scored two TDs, on runs of 11 and one yards.

For Kentucky, Woodson was 17-of-27 for 278 yards and two TDs  the 21-yarder to Mitchell and the 15-yarder to Tamme.

U of L's biggest star was a defensive player, senior end Elvis Dumervil, who set a school record for sacks in a game with six to boost his career total to 18, No. 7 on the Cards' all-time list. The old single-game record was five by Mike FLores against Murray State in 1990.

"We knew everything to expect on defense and the coaches did a great job preparing me," Dumervil said. "I went into the game with a lot of confidence."

At halftime, it looked as if Louisville was going to turn the game into a rout similar to most of its blowouts of last season. The Cards outgained UK 229-104 in total offense and reeled off 21 consecutive second-quarter points to break a 7-7 first-quarter deadlock.

But the Wildcats came to life on both sides of the ball after intermission. Taylor Begley kicked a 37-yard field goal on their first possession after a drive stalled at the U of L 19. Then on their next series, Rafael Little's 51-yard run set up Woodson's 21-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell to pull UK to within 28-17 with 6:01 left in the third quarter.

The Cards put their only points on the board with a 19-yard field goal by Art Carmody on the second play of the fourth period to make it 31-17. But the Cats quickly retaliated, sparked by Keenan Burton's 33-yard reception, Woodson's 15-yard TD pass to Tamme at the 11:52 mark set the stage for the tense finish.

U of L managed only 159 yards of total offense in the second half, 75 of it on one drive.

"We didn't get a lot done in the second half," Brohm said. "We started the game with a lot of fire and energy, but we came out a little sluggish in the second half and we've got to correct that."

"Kentucky played great. They slapped us around," offensive lineman Travis Leffew said. "I'm disappointed in the way we played."

Said Petrino: "I was really happy with the way our players opened the game. We started the game the way you're supposed to start it. In the second half, obviously, we didn't play as well as we wanted to. But I want to be clear that Kentucky deserves a lot of credit. They played extremely hard and they made plays."

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/sports/12563475.htm