The 7,321 fans at Scheumann Stadium were going wild Saturday afternoon.
Jeremy Hill had just hauled in a 35-yard pass from Tanner Justice off a trick play to give Ball State University a 16-12 lead against Ohio University with less than six minutes to play in the fourth quarter. It looked like the Cardinals might win their second game in a row.
But then Hill went wild too. As the wide receiver leaped to his feet, he tossed the ball in the air and punched it in celebration.
Hill's act didn't go unnoticed by the officials, who swiftly called a personal foul for excessive celebration. The penalty, assessed on the kickoff, gave the Bobcats good field position.
Coach Stan Parrish said he knew his team was trouble after the penalty.
"You know you have to pull a rabbit out of the hat," he said. "We didn't make a play."
The Bobcats took advantage and marched down the field to score the winning touchdown in their 20-17 victory Saturday.
Hill's penalty wasn't the only costly one for Ball State.
"We had nine penalties for 91 yards," Parrish said. "I don't think you need to say anymore than that. All of them hurt us badly."
Despite the mistakes, Ball State used two big plays on offense and a bend-but-don't-break defense to hold Ohio at bay for most of the game. The Bobcats were forced to attempt five field goals, making four of them.
"It felt great to hold them to four field goals," linebacker Davyd Jones said. "It's all about finishing now. That's what we need to work on, just finishing and completing the game."
The Cardinals won the turnover battle for the second time all season, as Jason Pinkston and Sean Baker each had an interception. Justice threw his third interception of the season, but that was the Cardinals' lone turnover. Entering the game, Ohio had the most takeaways in the country.
"We really, really worked hard on that all week," Parrish said. "Securing the ball, we did a good job with that."
Again without quarterback Kelly Page, the Cardinals had to focus more on the Wildcat formation in their offensive game plan. Ball State came up with two big plays out of the formation. Justice's touchdown pass to Hill began in the Wildcat and running back Eric Williams broke a 55-yard run from the formation.
"We put [the pass] in recently just to give the Wildcat something else so defenses can't just sit, load the box up and just play the run," Justice said. "We practiced it all week, and sometimes it worked in practice and sometimes id didn't."
Williams showed no ill effects from his knee strain last week and led the Cardinals with 59 rushing yards and a touchdown. A week after setting school-record with 301 rushing yards, MiQuale Lewis had 45 yards.
"We didn't block very well," Parrish said. "We didn't give them running lanes."
The Cardinals were ultimately unable to generate enough offense to overcome their mistakes and youth.
"We don't have any wiggle room," Parrish said. "We have to get it all just right at this stage."
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