Rocky opener for Northeastern

MUNCIE, Ind. - Northeastern football coach Rocky Hager expected to face a high-octane offense in his team's season opener last night against Ball State. The Cardinals returned every offensive starter from last season's team that went 7-6 and lost to Rutgers in the International Bowl.

What Hager did not expect were six first-half penalties that helped Ball State to a 48-14 victory in front of 13,068 at Scheumann Stadium.

The loss was Northeastern's first in the month of August.

"I feel like we had some things going reasonably for us offensively, and found ways with which to stop ourselves," Hager said. "Back where I grew up, that's called shooting yourselves in the foot."

Northeastern received the opening kickoff and drove to the Ball State 31-yard line before punting. The Cardinals then took over, led by junior quarterback Nate Davis, who ranked 15th in the nation in total offense last season.

Davis handed to junior tailback MiQuale Lewis for a 2-yard touchdown to cap a four-play, 80-yard drive, and later found his tight end, senior Darius Hill, on an 8-yard touchdown pass to put the Huskies in a 14-0 hole early in the second quarter.

Davis completed 21 of 24 passes for 290 yards and three touchdowns before being pulled in the fourth quarter.

"It's just going to take a lot more practice and a lot more mental training and stuff like that for some of the young guys in our secondary," said Huskies senior cornerback Cord Parks. "Some of the plays we just ended up giving them. Practice, get some things together, and we should be able to just come back and bounce back to play Georgia Southern [Sept. 13]."

The rest of the second and third quarters belonged to Ron Conway and Dante Love. Conway, the Huskies' punter, was forced to kick seven times before the third quarter was through, while Love, Ball State's speedy receiver, had nine catches for 171 yards and a touchdown, all before the fourth quarter.

"I think we faced a football team that at many positions had better speed than we had, and I don't consider ourselves slow," Hager said. "[Ball State's] offensive line handled our defensive line and linebackers especially well."

Northeastern was able to score right before the half on a nine-play, 79-yard drive that took only 1:03 and was capped by Greg Abelli's 20-yard run.

"I think we just finished," NU quarterback Anthony Orio said of the drive. "The first few drives I think we did the same things, it's just that we were unable to put it in the end zone.

"In that drive, we made some plays and found our way into the end zone."

Orio completed 14 of 30 passes for 140 yards.

The Huskies scored one final time on a 10-yard hookup from backup quarterback John Sperrazza to Conor Gilmartin-Donohue with 36 seconds remaining.

Northeastern has a week off before traveling to Georgia Southern.

"[The week off] is a good thing," said Parks, who finished with three tackles. "This gives us two weeks to prepare for [Georgia Southern], and we should bounce back strong."

Sports information director Jack Grinold, who had heart surgery Aug. 15 and did not make the trip, had attended 464 straight Northeastern football games since 1962.