YPSILANTI, Mich.
? Indiana State
dropped its season opener, and the first game of the Trent Miles era, by a
score of 52-0 on Thursday (Aug. 28) evening at Eastern Michigan.
The Eagles begin the season 1-0, while Indiana
State falls to 0-1.
There were fireworks to open the 2008 campaign for the
Sycamores as Eastern Michigan was called for being
offsides on the opening kickoff and then senior Kyle Monroe took the second
attempt off the leg of Eagles' kicker Joe Carithers all the way to the end zone
for an apparent touchdown to open the season. An illegal blocking penalty
negated the return and ISU was forced to punt after crossing midfield.
EMU answered with a touchdown on its first drive as Terrance
Blevins raced to pay dirt from four yards out to give the Eagles an early 7-0
advantage. The Eagles then struck again on the opening play of their second
drive with a 61-yard run by Blevins as EMU surged ahead 14-0.
Eastern Michigan's advantage grew to
21-0 just four minutes into the second quarter when Andy Schmitt found Tyler
Jones on a 14-yard pass into the end zone. The EMU advantage stretched to 28-0
with 7:07 left before the break on a
two-yard scoring plunge by Dwayne Priest.
After giving up over 300 yards of offense to the Eagles over
much of the first quarter, the Sycamore defense came to life by forcing its
first turnover of the game when Alex Sewell forced a fumble against EMU's Ben
Thayer after a completed pass, which Donye McCleskey was able to scoop and
return to the 14-yard line.
The Sycamore offense showed spark right before the half with
a two-minute drive which covered 78 yards and was fueled by a 14-yard scramble
on fourth and long by freshman quarterback Calvin Schmidtke. The Sycamore moved
the ball down to the EMU eight-yard line with just under 30 seconds left on the
clock. Freshman Braulio Martinez's 25-yard field goal was blocked to end the
ISU threat and send the Sycamores into the half down 28-0.
EMU broke through for the first score of the second half
when quarterback Andy Schmitt scored from 16-yards out on a scramble to up the
Eagle advantage to 35-0.
Darrius Gates finished the game with a career-high 61 yard
rushing effort on 10 carries. Ryan Patrick caught a pair of passes for 21
yards. Calvin Schmidtke finished the game with a 4-for-15 passing mark for 49
yards and three interceptions while Matt Seliger was 3-of-8 for eight yards.
Blevins finished the game with 176 rushing yards on 21
attempts while Schmitt was 15-of-20 passing for 160 yards and a score. With 10:34 left in the game, Carithers tacked on a 33-yard
field goal to give EMU a 45-0 lead. The
Eagles then wrapped up the game with a 19-yard touchdown run by quarterback
Jason Williams with 2:37 left on the
clock to bring the game to its final score of 52-0.
Indiana State
returns to action on Saturday, September 13 when they open FCS
play at Eastern Illinois. Kick-off is set for 7:00 p.m. (ET) and the game can be heard live
on the radio at The Crock 92.7 FM as well as on the internet at www.crock927.com.
NOTES: The ISU captains
for the game were Jansen Hayes, Mike Woods, Jack Byrne and Jayden Everett ...
With the loss to Eastern Michigan, Indiana State's losing streak grows to 15
games ... The Sycamores dropped their season-opener for the 12th
consecutive season ... Indiana State opened the year on a Thursday night for the
fourth time in the last six seasons (three of those have come on the road at a
member of the Mid-American Conference) ... Sophomore Darrius Gates set a
career-high with 61 rushing yards ... Sophomore Gabe Mullane finished with a 42.4
punting average, making eight kicks in the game ... A total of 34 (of 53 that saw
action) Sycamores made their collegiate football debut against Eastern Michigan.
