By Tyler Wooten
GoSycamores.com

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Lightning may have been striking all around Memorial Stadium, but it also striking on the field for the Sycamore offense as Indiana State exploded to a 52-17 victory over the Butler Bulldogs to open the 2015 season on Saturday afternoon.

Several lightning delays close to two hours in total turned today's contest into one of the more peculiar football games in the country on Saturday, but ISU (1-0) didn't miss a beat and was able to carve up the Butler (0-1) defense for 496 yards of total offense.

“We're excited to open up the season with a win, especially at home,” ISU head coach Mike Sanford said.

Most of those 496 yards came from huge plays out of junior running back LeMonte Booker and senior wide receiver Gary Owens. The duo combined for 294 yards and five touchdowns on Saturday, four of which came from Booker.

The Preseason All-MVFC Honorable Mention exploded for a career-high 137 yards and three touchdowns on the ground on 11 touches (12.5 YPC), while adding in a 24-yard screen pass scamper to the endzone early in the first quarter. Booker also added TD runs of 25 yards and a monster 76 yard dash through a semi-sized hole carved out for him by the Sycamore offensive line.

“Obviously LeMonte Booker was very good, very effective and very explosive,” Sanford said. “We said we needed to run the ball on offense and I thought we ran the ball well.”

As for Owens, the senior recorded his fourth-career 100-yard game with 133 yards and one touchdown on five catches – two of which were 47 yards or longer. The senior hauled in a 53-yard TD bomb early in the third quarter on a beautiful play-action rollout in which he left his defender in the dust on a sharp stop-and-go route.

“Gary had a really good offseason, he's prepared well,” Sanford said. “He picked up right where he left off last year, and I expect to see even more from him going forward.”

As for the man getting the ball to Booker and Owens, that was newly-appointed starting quarterback Matt Adam, who was announced as the winner of the training camp competition shortly before kickoff. Adam, who caught the imagination of Sycamore fans last season after nearly pulling off a comeback upset over Illinois State following an injury to Mike Perish, had a solid start to 2015 on Saturday, going 9-of-16 for 164 yards, two touchdowns and one interception on a freak tipped pass at the line of scrimmage.

Adam was also more than effective running on his own on Saturday, rushing for 46 yards and one touchdown on a 37-yard scamper to the endzone. In fact, on ISU's first touchdown drive in the first quarter, Adam nearly caught the pylon on a surprising Superman dive following a 28-yard dash.

“Obviously we named a starter, and it was Matt Adam,” Sanford said. “He played in one game last year against Illinois State and he played effectively and efficiently. I thought today he made some big plays, which was good.”

The most consistent performers of the day, though, were from the Sycamore defense – which forced Butler to a three-and-out on half of its drives on Saturday. Junior Lonnell Brown, Jr. led all Sycamore defenders with nine total tackles (four solo), including three TFL for five yards. Linebacker Jameer Thurman also had himself a day, as he picked off passes on consecutive drives and returned them for a total of 23 yards.

In total, the ISU defense recorded three sacks and 11 tackles for loss for a total of 32 yards.

“I can't say enough about our defense,” Sanford said. “We were able to stop them and force them into passing situations and were able to put some pressure on the quarterback.”

“One of the things we said going into the game was that our defensive line needed to control the line of scrimmage, and I felt that they did that, especially early,” Sanford continued.

What is most impressive about today's win was the fact that ISU was able to stay consistent through some very unusual delays. Following Booker's 76-yard touchdown run with 6:18 in the second quarter, officials instituted a delay due to lightning within close proximity to Memorial Stadium at approximately 4:10 local time.

At around 4:40, play resumed with the PAT following Booker's touchdown. At 5:00 exactly, a massive lightning bolt struck very close to the stadium forcing another delay that would last until 6:37. Because of the delays, halftime was reduced to three minutes.

“I've been coaching a long time and I've never had a game where we didn't have halftime,” Sanford said.

“I thought our team handled the distractions well,” he continued. “It's a hard balance; when you're waiting you want to make sure you're serious and focusing but you can't focus all that time. You have to make it loose.”

The Sycamores hit the road next week to in-state rival Purdue in the hopes of becoming the next FCS team to upset a Power-5 school. Just today, MVFC foe South Dakota State beat Kansas, North Dakota took down Wyoming and Portland State scored a big win over Pac-12 Washington State. Fellow MVFC school Southern Illinois also came heartbreakingly close to taking down Indiana, falling 48-47 after a failed two-point conversion for the win.

However, Coach Sanford and company know there is work ahead of them.

“Your biggest improvement should be from game one to game two,” Sanford said. “We've got to pass protect better. We have to be able to consistently run the ball. We can't allow big plays to come against our defense.”

For the latest information on the Sycamore Football team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.