Football Falls To Central Michigan On Senior Night

Wednesday, November 18

Muncie, Ind.

8:00

Ball State University

5-7-0 , 4-4

Central Michigan

2-10-0 , 2-6

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Ball State Cardinals

Western Michigan

November 19, 2009 | Football

Box Score

By: Ball State Athletics

MUNCIE, Ind. - The Ball State football team closed out the home portion of the 2009 regular season Wednesday night with a 35-3 loss to Mid-American Conference leader Central Michigan at Scheumann Stadium.

"Give credit to our opponents," head coach Stan Parrish said. "We've hung tough and we've had to improvise. We've had a great spirit through the season and if all of us could learn one thing from this year, it would be to get off to a good start. Tonight, we didn't move the ball well at all and we mishandled the ball in the wildcat. The inability to get off to a good start crippled us."

Central Michigan (9-2, 7-0 MAC) opened the scoring with a 51-yard touchdown drive on its opening possession. CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour hit three straight passes to cap the drive, including a 10-yard touchdown pass to Bryan Anderson giving the Chippewas the early 7-0 lead.

The Chippewas looked ready to take a two-touchdown lead early in the second quarter as they had a first and goal from the one yard line. The Ball State defense stood tall as it stuffed Bryan Schroeder and LeFevour on three consecutive plays. Central Michigan elected to go for the touchdown on fourth down, but Schroeder was stopped at the one-yard line as junior linebacker Davyd Jones (Muncie, Ind./Central) came around the end and forced a fumble to turn the ball over on downs.

After a BSU three-and-out, the Chippewas took advantage of good field position to drive 43 yards in six plays to score their second touchdown of the game as LeFevour ran it in from one yard out for a 14-0 lead. Ball State responded on its ensuing possession as it drove 59 yards in 10 yards to set up its first score of the game.

Senior quarterback Tanner Justice (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral) was the catalyst during the drive. Justice completed an 18-yard pass to Daniel Ifft (Dover, Ohio/Dover) and a 13-yard pass to Briggs Orsbon (Convoy, Ohio/Crestview) to put the Cardinals in position for a field goal. Junior Ian McGarvey (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove) came on and converted a 20-yard field goal to narrow the gap to 14-3. Central Michigan closed the half with a bang as LeFevour hit Antonio Brown on an 82-yard touchdown pass on a third down to extend its lead to 21-3.

The Chippewas added two third quarter touchdowns to close out the scoring with a 35-3 victory as LeFevour completed two touchdown passes to David Blackburn.

Sophomore tailback Cory Sykes (Harvey, Ill./Thornton) finished the night with 85 yards rushing, his second highest single-game total of his career (203 at Eastern Michigan, 10/24/09). LeFevour led Central Michigan with 344 yards passing and 59 yards rushing in the victory while accounting for five total touchdowns.

Jones led the Cardinals' defense with a career-high 15 tackles in the loss and added a forced fumble on a fourth down play. Freshman linebacker Theon Dixon (Cleveland, Ohio/Glenville) added a career-high 10 tackles while sophomore Sean Baker (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield) also chipped in 10 tackles.

Wednesday's contest was the final home game for Ball State's nine seniors -- Brandon Crawford (Fort Wayne, Ind./South), Spain Cosby (Carrollton, Ga./Villa Rice), Chad Davis (Pendleton, Ind./Pendleton Heights), Drew Duffin (Avon, Ind./Avon), Jordan Applegate (Fort Wayne, Ind./Snider), Tanner Justice (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral), Kyle Kuntz (Vandalia, Ohio/Butler), Sam Woodworth (Elkhart, Ind./Central) and Alex Knipp (Amherst, Ohio/Steele).