Two former Kentucky HS stars dominate, but field goal ruins their season opener
Two former Kentucky high school standouts threw most of the punches for Purdue on Friday night, but it was a kick that decided things.
Elijah Sindelar, a quarterback who starred for Caldwell County, and Rondale Moore, a wide receiver who played at Trinity, led the Boilermakers in a 34-31 loss at Nevada. The game ended after 1:30 a.m. in the eastern time zone; Purdue led 31-17 entering the fourth quarter but the Wolfpack scored 20 unanswered points in the game to come up with the win.
Nevada intercepted Sindelar with under a minute left to play in regulation to set-up a 56-yard field-goal try by true freshman Brandon Talton. Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm, who played at Trinity and the University of Louisville, called a timeout to ice Talton, whose first kick fell short. He connected on the try that counted, completing a wild comeback.
Sindelar, a graduate student, was 34 of 52 for 423 yards and 4 touchdowns with two picks. He threw the 24th 400-yard passing game in Purdue history, according to the team’s Twitter account.
Moore, a sophomore, grabbed 11 of Sindelar’s passes for 124 yards and one score. He returned three punts and two kickoffs for a total of 53 yards.
Sindelar, who had his junior year cut short due to injury, earlier this year was awarded an additional year of eligibility by the NCAA and could play next season but hopes to be drafted into the NFL in April. Entering this season he’d thrown for 2,547 yards and 20 TDs in 19 career games.
Moore was the first true freshman to be selected as a consensus All-American in Big Ten history. The New Albany, Ind., native broke Purdue records for all-purpose yards in a single game (in his first college game, no less) and all-purpose yards in a season, and was the third player in conference history to record at least 100 receptions.
Moore was ruled ineligible for part of his junior season but was a big producer during Trinity’s playoff run that year, which ended in the first of two straight state titles. He finished with 15 TDs and 1,347 yards on 99 catches during the 2017 campaign, after which he was named a Mr. Football finalist.
Media members picked Nevada to finish third in the West Division of the Mountain West Conference. The Big Ten does not conduct a preseason media poll, but Purdue was picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten’s West Division in a poll of media members conducted by Cleveland.com.
Brohm is in his third season as the head coach at Purdue.
This story was originally published August 31, 2019 at 1:40 AM.
