Broncos Bashed

Ball State rolls over WMU, 45-22, in route to MAC West Championship

By Adam Bouton
Western Herald

It takes a team effort to win games.  To win 12 straight, it takes talent, confidence and a team effort.  Ball State played with all three Tuesday evening.
Behind junior quarterback Nate Davis, inspiring play and a total team effort, No.15 ranked Ball State University (12-0, 8-0 Mid-American Conference) finished the regular season undefeated as they defeated Western Michigan University (9-3, 6-2 MAC) 45-22 in Muncie, Ind.
“They’re a classic example of a team,” Bronco head coach Bill Cubit said, following Tuesday’s game.
Davis passed for 273 and ran for another 64 yards to lead the Cardinals over the Broncos.  More importantly, he did not turn over the ball during the game and came up with several big plays on third down.  Junior running back MiQuale Lewis added 120 yards rushing and three touchdowns on the ground for the Cardinals.
“Nate Davis is a great player,” Cubit said.  “He makes those kids around him pretty good.  The running back Lewis is really a good player.”
With the game tied 14-14, Ball State scored 24 unanswered points to take a commanding 38-14 lead late in the third quarter.
The final seven of those 24 points were scored by senior cornerback Trey Lewis, who intercepted Hiller and returned the ball 35 yards to put BSU up 38-14.
WMU then attempted to come back.
Brandon West scored with 11 minutes remaining in the fourth on an 8-yard run.  After Hiller found Nunez on the two-point conversion, the Ball State lead was cut to 38-22.
Ball State then put together a long scoring drive to curb WMU’s momentum and clinch the victory.  Lewis scored on the ground again, this time from 1-yard out, to go up 45-22 with just 4:31 remaining in the game.  With the run, Lewis scored his school-record 20th touchdown of the season.
The Cardinals opened up the game on the offensive, taking an early 7-0 lead on a 10-yard touchdown run by Lewis.  Senior wide receiver Louis Johnson had three catches for 51 yards during the 87-yard drive for Ball State.
Johnson then provided a touchdown of his own when he scored on a 40-yard TD pass from Davis.  The touchdown followed Sean Baker’s sixth interception of the season and Hiller’s first interception of the evening.
Johnson made a terrific move, stopping close to the goal line after the catch, allowing Bronco safeties C.J. Wilson and Louis Delmas to fly past him into each other.  Johnson then walked into the end zone.
“I’ve been watching on film how aggressive No. 9 was [Delmas],” Johnson said.
“I didn’t even see the guy coming from the left [Wilson].  I was just trying to make No. 9 miss.”
Down 14-0, WMU used some trickery in getting on the scoreboard.  From the Ball State 36, Hiller took the snap and pitched the option to the backup quarterback Drew Burdi.  Burdi elected to pass instead of run and found a wide open Schneider Julien for a touchdown pass.  Burdi’s first touchdown pass of the season cut the lead to 14-7 BSU.
On its next offensive possession, Hiller and the Broncos drove 78 yards downfield and capped it off when Hiller threw a perfect
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pass into the waiting arms of sophomore wide receiver Juan Nunez.  The 9-yard touchdown tied the game 14-14.
The Broncos were able to dictate the tempo during the second quarter run, something that Cubit and his coaching staff were aiming for.
“You got to slow the game down early,” Cubit noted.
Ball State then went on a scoring stretch of 24, scoring 10 of those before halftime.  After sophomore kicker Ian McGarvey hit a 43-yard field goal to make the game 17-14 in favor of the Cardinals, Davis scrambled in from 6 yards out to give Ball State the 24-14 advantage heading into the half.
WMU started the second half with the ball, but could not generate any offense.  Ball State took advantage and engineered a 50-yard drive.  Lewis ran in his second touchdown of the night to extend the Cardinal lead to 31-14.
“We had to keep it close,” Cubit said of the failure to do so.  “It’s going to be hard to come back.”
Just 23 seconds later, Hiller passed the ball and found the hands of Trey Lewis.  The fifth-year senior found a clear path to the end zone and ran it in, giving the Cardinals a 38-14 lead with just 3:24 remaining in the third quarter.
“The kid just made a heck of a play,” Hiller said.  “That was a poor decision on my part.  I put us in a tough spot a couple times today.”
The Broncos crossed the goal line just once more and after Davis helped the Cardinals engineer an 81-yard scoring drive. The game was all but over.
The bottom line during the game, according to Cubit, was that WMU made too many mistakes.  That can’t happen against a team the caliber of Ball State.
“We made a lot more mistakes than they did,” Cubit acknowledged.  “We made way to many mental mistakes.  We had to play one of our top games and we didn’t.”
Similar to the Central Michigan University defeat, the Bronco defense had trouble getting off the field on third down.
Ball State was 9-for-15 on its third down conversions, including a conversion on third and 18.
Davis played mistake-free football for the Cardinals and proved why he has been nationally recognized.  The Broncos knew before the game what Davis was capable of, but still had trouble stopping him.
“We knew going in that he was a really great player,” Bronco junior linebacker Austin Pritchard said.  “I don’t think Nate Davis is a secret to anyone who follows this league or college football.”
Hiller had just 145 yards passing, throwing two interceptions and one touchdown.  Seniors Jamarko Simmons and Schneider Julien led the receivers in their final regular season game as they had 84 and 85 receiving yards respectively.  Simmons tied Greg Jennings’ school record of 98 receptions in a season during the defeat.
Pritchard led the defense with 11 tackles and three tackles for loss.  Senior safety Louis Delmas added eight tackles for the Bronco defense.
One of the highlights for the Broncos was the play on running back Aaron Winchester.  The freshman led the team with 77 yards rushing on 14 carries.
Cubit knows that the Broncos were defeated by a better team.  Perhaps one of the best he’s seen in his four years as the head man at Western Michigan.
“They’re really a good football team,” Cubit said.  “They’re as good as I’ve seen.”

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Nov 26 2008. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com