University of Connecticut Athletics
Huskies Drop Heartbreaker to Ball State
9/28/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
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STORRS, CT (September 28, 2002) – Ball State’s Mike Langford connected on a 37-yard field goal in overtime and UConn’s Marc Hickok missed his 37-yard attempt on UConn’s possession as the Cardinals defeated Connecticut 24-21 before a crowd of 16,849 -- the largest home crowd in UConn football history.
The Huskies drop to 2-3, losing for the first time after a two-game winning streak. BSU improves to 2-2 with the victory.
UConn sent the game into overtime with 29 seconds remaining in regulation on a one-yard quarterback sneak by Dan Orlovsky. The touchdown culminated a 15-play, 95-yard drive that took 4:12. The key play of the drive was a 10-yard pass play to Tommy Collins on 3rd and 10 from the Ball State 11. Orlovsky also hit Wes Timko and Jason Williams with key receptions on the drive. Orlovsky connected on 7 of 10 passes on the drive for 80 yards.
The college overtime rule states that each team gets a possession from the opponents 25-yard line in each overtime until one team has the lead. Connecticut won the toss in the overtime and elected to go on defense first. Ball State was able to move from the Connecticut 25 down to the 20 before Langford connected from 37-yards out to give the Cardinals the lead. UConn moved down to the Ball State 19-yard line, but Hickok’s kick sailed wide right to give Ball State the victory.
The Huskies took the lead with 2:45 to play in the opening quarter on a 27-yard touchdown strike to Cliff Hill from Orlovsky. Orlovsky finished the day with 23 completions in 37 attempts for 236 yards. He was intercepted twice. The Cardinals knotted the score at 7-7 on Marcus Meriweather’s 38-yard touchdown catch from Talmadge Hill just 1:14 later.
UConn freshman running back Terry Caulley (18 carries, 131 yards) scampered in from five yards out with 13:51 to play in the first half to give UConn a 14-7 lead. The Cardinals answered with 1:30 to play before halftime on a 15-yard pass from Hill (15 of 26. 156 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT) to Jason Barnes.
Ball State took its first lead of the game after Jesse Avant intercepted an Orlovsky pass and returned it 39 yards to the UConn 9. Two plays later, Merriweather (28 carries, 124 yards) scored from 6 yards out for the lead.
The Huskies return to action on Saturday, October 5 when they travel to the Orange Bowl to play top-ranked Miami. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.
GAME NOTES
**Today was UConn’s first overtime contest since October 16, 1999, a 48-45 triple overtime loss to Villanova at Memorial Stadium... UConn is now 4-6 in all-time overtime contests, 0-2 under Randy Edsall, 4-4 at home in overtime.
**Ball State is 3-0 in overtime, adding today’s win to wins over Ohio in 1996 and Central Michigan in 1997.
**UConn freshman Terry Caulley has three straight 100-yard rushing performances, the first Husky to stack three such games together since Wilbur Gilliard in 1995.
**Caulley’s 54-yard run in the first half was UConn’s longest play from scrimmage this season.
**UConn scored a touchdown against Ball State for the first time in three meetings.
**UConn scored points in the first quarter for the first time since the Boston College game.
**UConn’s James Hargrave left the game in the first half with an injured left shoulder and did not return.
**The attendance for today’s game was 16,849, the largest total in Memorial Stadium history.
TOP FIVE CROWDS AT MEMORIAL STADIUM
16,849 9/28/02 vs. Ball State 24-21 ot loss
16,751 9/7/02 vs. Georgia Tech 31-14 loss
16,632 9/9/00 vs. Colgate 37-7 win
16,585 10/28/00 vs. South Florida 21-13 loss
16,549 9/23/00 vs. Northeastern 35-27 loss
**Marcus Merriweather has topped the 100-yard mark three times in 2002... He has 14 100-yard games in his career and is one away from tying the school record.
**With two TD’s on the day, Merriweather now has 28 overall TD’s and 26 rushing TD’s in his career.
**Jesse Avant had his fourth career interception, his second against UConn... Jason Barnes’ TD reception was the 1st of his career... Doug Owusu’s interception was his second of the season.
UCONN QUOTES
Head Coach Randy Edsall:
On The Loss in OT
"I think that this very easily could have been a win for us, we let one get away today. When you make the mistakes that we did throughout the game, offensively, defensively, and special teams, you put yourself in a tough situation and I give our team credit for being able to come back and tie it in the end, but we’ve got to make sure we finish it off."
On The Turnovers
"We’re not a good enough team to make the mistakes we did today. They got 14 points on an interception and us fumbling an interception. We have a situation where if everyone does what they’re supposed to do and the guys step up, then it doesn’t even go into overtime, we have to make plays, and we didn’t make them."
On the Kicking
"His job is to put the ball through the uprights. He didn’t do it two weeks ago, he did it last week, and didn’t do it today. I have all the confidence in the world in him, and he’s just got to put it throught the uprights. I think he just didn’t finish through those kicks today. He’s our best kicker right now and I don’t see anyone else showing me that they can do a better job than he’s doing for us right now."
On Jamal Lundy
"That’s one of the things that I think was missing on defense. I wanted Jamal in there from a leadership standpoint."
On the OT Decision to Take the Ball Second
"It’s not carved in stone, I thought our defense was playing well in the second half and wanted to keep the pressure off the offense. I wanted to stop them or at least hold them to a field goal. I thought we’d be able to get in there and score a touchdown, we had some momentum. Unfortunately, we didn’t make the kick."
Senior Linebacker Jamal Lundy:
On His Role Defensively
"I just wanted to go out there and play my game to the best of my abilities. I did what I had to do. I didn’t get the chance to be as active as I wanted to and that’s frustrating, but it’s great on being back on the field with the guys."
On The Game/Ball State
"Even with all the mistakes we’ve made, we gave ourselves a few chances to win. You have to give them credit, they’re a good team and we didn’t take advantage of the chances we had."
Senior Kicker Mark Hickock:
On the Missed Overtime Field Goal
"I got a solid foot on it, but I knew as soon as I looked up that it was going wide. Now when we go through the tape later in the week, I’ll see where it went wrong and work from there to fix it."
On His Confidence
"It wasn’t great for my confidence, but I’ll work on it in practice this week and be ready for next week’s game."
