By Murray Evans
The Associated Press

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Eric Shelton left Florida State because he thought he wasn't carrying the football enough. That apparently won't be problem now that he's transferred to Louisville.

Shelton, a Lexington native, had a homecoming to remember on Sunday night. The sophomore tailback rushed for 151 yards and two touchdowns to lead Louisville to a 40-24 win over Kentucky at Commonwealth Stadium in the season opener for both teams.

It was the sixth win for Louisville in 10 meetings since the teams renewed their long-dormant rivalry in 1994. The Cardinals have won four of their last five against Kentucky, including the last three on Kentucky's home field.

Shelton's 25 carries were only four fewer than his total number of carries all season for Florida State as a freshman in 2001.

"I'm going to be sore in the morning," Shelton said with a smile. "My first game was real exciting, especially in my hometown. The offensive line did a great job blocking. I ran low, and it paid off."

Shelton, a Bryan Station High School product, sat out last season after transferring to Louisville and won the Cardinals' starting tailback job during the preseason. He became the first Louisville running back to rush for at least 150 yards in a game since Tony Stallings ran for 155 yards against Memphis on Oct. 29, 2001.

"Shelton is a load," Louisville quarterback Stefan LeFors said. "He had people hanging on him, and he ran through people. He just ran through them. People thought he was rusty because he didn't play last year."

The only thing that looked rusty was Kentucky's punt unit. Louisville took advantage of two punt miscues by the Wildcats, built an 18-point lead, weathered a rally and drained the clock with two time-consuming drives to seal the win.

The Cardinals recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown, scored a safety on another botched punt and, after the free kick, scored a field goal to make it 26-10.

The Wildcats came within two points by the end of the third quarter. But Louisville answered with a 14-play, 81-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 22-yard scoring run by Shelton.

"He broke some tackles, but I thought some of our tackling was sloppy," Kentucky coach Rich Brooks said of Shelton. "Several times he got extra yards after the first hit. He's a powerful back, but sometimes we had problems and allowed him to get around it."

Kentucky reached the Louisville 20-yard line midway through the fourth quarter, but Josh Minkins intercepted a pass by Jared Lorenzen with 8:17 left.

"I thought that showed a lot of character from our players," Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said of the defensive stand. "When their offense was driving the ball on our defense late, our guys became focused, and they became more confident."

The Cardinals ran out all but the final six seconds on their final drive, which ended with Lionel Gates scoring on a 2-yard run.

"Louisville made the plays they needed to make to win the game, and we made the mistakes we needed to lose it," Brooks said. "It's a tough way to come out of the barrel, but it's not the end of the world. We've got 11 games left."

A sudden, heavy thunderstorm delayed the start of the game for one hour, 23 minutes. The delay didn't appear to affect Louisville, which scored touchdowns on its first two possessions. Gavin Smart set up the second touchdown with a 41-yard interception return to the Kentucky 4.

The Cardinals, who recovered three blocked punts for touchdowns last season, did so again early in the second quarter. J.R. Russell smothered the punt by Sevin Sucurovic from the Kentucky 46, and the ball caromed all the way to the end zone, where Jonathon Jackerson fell on it.

Up 21-3, Louisville reached the Kentucky 31 late in the first half, but LeFors threw an interception. Kentucky scored with 45 seconds before halftime, on a 13-yard pass from Lorenzen to Glenn Holt. The Wildcats had just 96 yards of offense before the 64-yard touchdown drive.

After Louisville went ahead 26-10, Lorenzen led consecutive touchdown drives. Freshman Keenan Burton's first career catch was a leaping 31-yard touchdown grab and sliced Louisville's lead to 26-24 entering the fourth quarter.

Lorenzen completed 18 of 31 passes for 236 yards. LeFors, making his first collegiate start, went 14 of 21 passing for 180 yards.

Louisville	14	7	5	14-40
Kentucky	3	7	14	0-24

First Quarter

UL-Shelton 6 run (Smith kick), 9:42

UL-Kamer 2 pass from LeFors (Smith kick), 6:48

UK-FG Begley 44, 0:33

Second Quarter

UL-Jackerson blocked punt recovery in end zone (Smith kick), 12:51

UK-Holt 13 pass from Lorenzen (Begley kick), 0:45

Third Quarter

UL-Safety, Sucurovic fumbled ball out of end zone, 13:59

UL-FG Smith 25, 11:51

UK-Davis 1 run (Begley kick), 7:31

UK-Burton 31 pass from Lorenzen (Begley kick), 2:41

Fourth Quarter

UL-Shelton 22 run (Smith kick), 11:47

UL-Gates 2 run (Smith kick), 0:06

A-70,467.

	UL	UK
First downs	22	21
Rushes-yards	44-240	36-108
Passing	180	236
Comp-Att-Int	14-23-1	18-32-2
Return Yards	154	105
Punts-Avg.	3-36	2-17
Fumbles-Lost	0-0	1-0
Penalties-Yards	4-35	4-20
Time of Possession	29:45	29:33

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING-Louisville, Shelton 25-151, Gates 13-75, LeFors 4-19, Bush 2-(minus 5). Kentucky, Davis 15-45, Bwenge 5-43, Beach 4-24, Lorenzen 8-8, Johnson 2-7, Boyd 1-(minus 2), Sucurovic 1-(minus 17).

PASSING-Louisville, LeFors 14-23-1-180. Kentucky, Lorenzen 18-31-1-236, Boyd 0-1-1-0.

RECEIVING-U of L, Clark 6-94, Russell 3-45, Tinch 2-15, Ghent 1-14, Owens 1-10, Kamer 1-2. UK, Abney 3-51, Davis 3-38, Holt 3-33, Bwenge 3-25, Burton 1-31, Marchman 1-25, Bernard 1-18, Drobney 1-7, Beach 1-4, Johnson 1-4.