MT. PLEASANT, Mich. -- When any team puts up 40 points in a game, it usually isn't bemoaning missed scoring opportunities afterwards.
However, that's what Ball State did Saturday following a 41-40 loss to Central Michigan, closing out a 2-9 season at Kelly-Shorts Stadium with possibly its most disappointing defeat.
The Cardinals (2-6 Mid-American Conference) squandered a 27-0 first-quarter lead, as the Chippewas (4-7, 3-5) forged a halftime tie, then blew a 10-point advantage in the second half.
"I was shocked," said safety Justin Beriault, who made 10 tackles in his final BSU game. "When we were up 27-0, never in a million years would I have thought the final score would be 41-40.
"We hadn't been in that situation, being put up that much that early in the game, and I don't know that we know how to handle that."
"We'll carry it a long time," head coach Brady Hoke said. "We'll get by it, but we won't get by it easy."
The last missed opportunity actually put the Cardinals up 40-34 with 7:09 left in the game. David Gater blocked a CMU punt and Terry Moss recovered at the Central 22-yard line. Adell Givens busted through for 15 yards on the next play, but the Cards had to settle for Brian Jackson's 25-yard field goal.
Central promptly responded, with Jerry Seymour taking Kent Smith's third-down shovel pass 24 yards and Smith firing for 28 more to Asante White. A pass interference put the ball at the BSU 3, and Seymour covered the distance for his third touchdown, giving CMU a lead with 4:57 to go.
Ball State had two possessions following the score but both times relinquished the ball on downs. Central outside linebacker James King sacked BSU quarterback Joey Lynch twice on the final series.
"He owed us," CMU coach Brian Kelly said of King, who missed the team bus to last week's game and sat out the first couple series Saturday. "I was glad to see him end his career on that kind of note."
"At the end of the game, we should have been able to get into our two-minute offense, take the ball and kick the field goal," Hoke said. "I really believe that. We didn't execute and we didn't protect."
Hoke's belief was quite reasonable, considering Lynch completed 22 of 34 for 397 yards (third-highest total in school history) and four touchdowns. However, King's sacks gave Central five for the game.
Three of Lynch's TDs came in the first quarter. Two -- a 36-yarder to Bryan Williamson and a 52-yarder to Dante Ridgeway -- came on back-to-back throws. A Beriault interception preceded the second pass.
Givens ran 11 yards for the third score, and Gater recovered a Smith fumble at the 1 to set up Lynch's scoring toss to Michael Steinhaus.
Central began its comeback when Smith hit Justin Harper for an 89-yard touchdown with 1:16 to go in the first quarter.
Seymour (career-high 217 yards) ran for two scores in the second, sandwiched around Smith's 1-yard sneak.
In the third, BSU had a Ridgeway TD reception nullified by an illegal formation penalty, but Jackson booted a 35-yard field goal and Givens took a screen pass 47 yards for a touchdown.
Jackson had a field goal at the end of the first half blocked, as well as an extra point in the first. King also got a hand on a Reggie Hodges punt in the second.
"We had talked all week they had done a great job blocking kicks," Hoke said. "I think they had nine going into the game. In a 41-40 game, that makes a difference."
Givens, back in Hoke's good graces after being suspended last week for academic reasons, rushed for 100 of his 147 yards in the second half. The true freshman finished with 963 yards on the season. Ridgeway, named a Biletnikoff Award finalist earlier in the week, snagged 10 passes for 215 yards. The junior finished the season with 105 catches for 1,409 yards and eight touchdowns.
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