Box Score

The Kent State football team must find a way to finish off the opposition and maintain a sense of urgency for the entire 60 minutes if they want to defeat Massachusetts at Dix Stadium this Saturday.

The team showed many signs of life Saturday in DeKalb, Illinois, but when trailing by three late in the game, the Flashes’ first and second-string quarterbacks went down with injuries on consecutive plays as the Flashes lost, 17-14, and dropped to 0-5 on the season.

The Flashes (0-5, 0-2 MAC) showed up ready to play in the first half as they limited the high-scoring Huskies’ offense to only seven points in the first 30 minutes of play and went into the locker room at halftime, trailing, 7-3.

Three key penalties deterred Kent State from scoring in the first half, and those penalties allowed the Northern Illinois University Huskies’ offense to stay on the field and score the only touchdown of the half.

“During the week, we didn’t talk too much about Northern Illinois,” Kent State football coach Paul Haynes said. “We focused more on us, and we have felt during this year we have kind of beaten ourselves with a lot of penalties and turnovers have been our Achilles. Like I said, our guys will continue to fight and I love this football team.”

Despite the Flashes’ ability to keep the game close, they let the first win of the season slip right through their fingertips with the game on the line late in the fourth quarter.

The Flashes cut the Huskies’ lead to three with 7:15 remaining in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard rushing touchdown by sophomore quarterback Colin Reardon, and a two-point conversion reception from senior tight end Casey Pierce.

Junior safety Jordan Italiano came up with a big interception to give the Flashes’ offense life and the ball back with the team down by three with four minutes left to play. 

As the Flashes were marching to potentially take a late lead, Reardon went down with a knee injury after his cleat got caught in the turf while sliding. On the very next play, redshirt freshman quarterback Nathan Strock came in and fell down with an injury after taking a shot in the pocket.

“Personally I’ve never been through something like that nor have I ever seen it, but football is adversity,” senior wide receiver Chris Humphrey said. “We got knocked with adversity twice when our first quarterback went down and the second. When our third stringer went in, he was positive and he didn’t seem scared, but he hasn’t got any reps in a game. It was tough but we stayed positive through it.”

Reardon going down on the potential game-winning drive in what was his best game of the season seemed to be the fatal blow for the Flashes. He was 20 for 36 with 244 yards on the day. More importantly, he did not commit any turnovers in the game, a stats column he has struggled with down the stretch. Reardon also moved into eighth place in career passing yards at Kent State after his performance.

The extent of Reardon’s injuries is still unknown at this time.

“A lot of guys have been stepping up, especially James Brooks and Chris White,” Humphrey said. “I’m very proud of my group of guys that I am in charge of, the wide receivers. They’re going to continue to step up and grow and I’m going to keep pushing them. Hopefully they’ll push the younger guys and it will help us win games.”

Haynes chuckled and said it wasn’t by choice when asked about his third string quarterback entering the game late in the fourth quarter with the game on the line.

“That’s a first for me with two guys going down on two consecutive plays like that, but hopefully they’ll be ok because they’re important to this football team,” Haynes said.

The Huskies regained possession and ran the clock out after Kent State junior kicker Anthony Melchiori’s 56-yard attempt to tie the game came up short.

Contact Taylor Rosen at [email protected]. Contact Richie Mulhall at [email protected].