Turnovers costly as Bengals fall to Montclair St, 53-24

One week after a record-breaking performance, the Buffalo State Bengals fell back to earth a bit, losing Saturday to Montclair State by a score of 53-24.

The Bengals found themselves down 37-10 after a mistake-filled first half, digging themselves a hole that they were never able to get out of.

"It always comes down to execution, because it's execution that wins football games," said head coach Jerry Boyes last week. "You could have a billion different plays and all this fancy stuff, but if you can't execute them, you're not going to win."

Boyes' words seemed to be prophetic. One area where the Bengals struggled to execute was on third down, converting just three of 15 chances.

"If we won that game, I think it could have been the turning point for our season," junior guard Josh Jesonowski said. "But we just weren't able to respond to being punched in the mouth by Montclair State."

Junior quarterback Casey Kacz agreed.

"We felt good about ourselves going in and we felt we were the better team," Kacz said, "but we came out flat. Before the game we felt pretty pumped up in the locker room, but we didn't get that feeling back."

The Bengals' misfortunes began on their opening offensive drive, when junior quarterback Ryan Lehotsky threw an interception that was returned 52 yards for a touchdown. Later in the first half, Lehtosky fumbled after he was sacked by a Red Hawks defender, which led to Boyes turning to Kacz at quarterback for the remainder of the game.

Kacz did well in Lehotsky's absence, completing 16 of 28 passes for 213 yards and one touchdown. But it wasn't enough to bring the Bengals a victory.

On the Bengals' third offensive drive of the game, Boyes decided to take a calculated risk and, instead of punting the ball to the Red Hawks on fourth down, opted for a fake punt. The attempted pass by freshman Joe Going on 4th and 9 was completed, but it wasn't enough to give the Bengals a first down.

The failed fourth down attempt helped contribute to the loss by providing the Red Hawks with good field positioning which eventually led to a 39-yard field goal.

"I didn't mind the decision to go for it on fourth down," Kacz said. "I thought it was a good, aggressive call, and we wanted to use a fake punt when they were least expecting it. They didn't expect it, but we weren't able to convert."

Boyes believed that in situations like the Bengals' current predicament, the team needs to be able to show that it can face adversity well.

"It's how you handle adversity that defines individual players and defines us as a team," Boyes said last week. "Anybody can handle winning. But how you handle adversity can also teach you how to handle success."

The Bengals' next opponent, William Paterson, will certainly be a tough opponent, especially on defense.

"They're a physical defense that plays a 3-4 front," Kacz said. "Their cornerbacks are really athletic and they like to run a lot of fire zone blitzes. Our offensive line and our running backs are going to have to have a good game in pass protection for us to win."

An extra incentive to win exists for the Bengals this week — Saturday's game at Coyer Field will be Buffalo State's homecoming game.

"The enthusiasm that surrounds homecoming games in college is similar to homecoming games in high school," Jesonowski said. "We want to show everyone that we are a good team and we're going to come out fired up."

Tony Fiorello can be reached at fiorello.record@live.com.