While in high school in Bolingbrook, Ill., Douglas Owusu and Steve Monson terrorized opposing offenses.
On Saturday, it was just like old times for the duo as each tallied an interception that helped Ball State earn a 17-7 win over Western Michigan University.
On the first play of the second quarter, Monson, a senior, picked off a Chad Munson pass and returned it for a score. Although the return was recorded as a 35-yard run, Monson actually ran much more than that. He literally crossed the entire field to reach the end zone.
"Once I caught it, I knew if I got to the other side, nobody would be able to catch me," Monson said.
Owusu's interception came three possessions later in almost the exact same spot: the Western 35 yard line. Owusu, a junior, did not make it to the end zone on his return, though. The safety's return left him six yards short of the goal line.
"After I realized I went down on the six, I was (disappointed)," Owusu said.
The Cardinal offense scored two plays later on a Marcus Merriweather run, but Owusu's teammates made sure that he knew he was just short.
"We gave him hell on the sideline," Monson laughed.
Owusu only saw playing time when senior Charles Avant went out early with a shoulder injury. When that happened, Owusu said he was more than ready to step up.
"After Charles got injured, I was real excited," Owusu said. "Steve had to calm me down a little bit."
The second touchdown made the score 14-7. That's all the cushion the Cardinal defense would need for the rest of the game. Head coach Bill Lynch said the defense was due for a few big plays.
"We hadn't had a defensive score all year," Lynch said. "And we thought it was going to be pretty tough to score offensively."
Lynch's guess was correct. It was tough for the Cardinals to score offensively. Despite a record-breaking performance by Merriweather, the offense only mustered 260 total yards, the second-lowest output of the season. The passing game only yielded 45 yards, but Lynch said quarterback Andy Roesch was not upset by the numbers.
"He's as happy as anybody walking down that hall right now no matter what the statistics say," Lynch said of his quarterback.
One person who was happy with his numbers was Merriweather. In the third quarter the senior broke Ball State's career rushing record with a 21-yard gain up the left sideline. Lynch was quick to praise his star tailback, but asked the media to not to forget what the defense did.
"(Merriweather) deserves a lot of recognition, and I hope you all write a lot about him, but the defense carried the day," Lynch said.
Western head coach Gary Darnell said the Cardinals did nothing new defensively, but his offense still couldn't move the ball.
"They were the exact same pictures we worked on," Darnell said of the Cardinals' defensive schemes. "(But) sometimes coaches write checks bigger than their players can cash."
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