By David Carducci
Record-Courier staff writer
Kent State completed a final-month collapse by dropping a 9-6 battle of field goals to Buffalo in Saturday’s regular-season finale at Dix Stadium.
With three straight losses to bring a close to an injury-riddled 2009 campaign, the Golden Flashes fell short of a series of once realistic goals.
The hopes for a winning season and a division title ended last week at Temple.
When Buffalo’s A.J. Principe booted his third field goal on Friday — a 22-yarder with just five seconds to play — the Flashes watched their chance of finishing at .500 circle the drain.
KSU could only manage two Freddy Cortez field goals behind an offense that struggled throughout the game.
But then, with electrifying true freshman quarterback Spencer Keith standing on the sideline with a separated throwing shoulder, KSU seemed to consider its offensive failure a fait accompli.
“Our players battled hard,” said KSU head coach Doug Martin. “It’s just unfortunate. We did about as good as you could do with the cards we’ve been dealt. When you have to play three quarterbacks in a year, that’s just the way it goes. Unfortunately, we’ve been through that for about five years around here.”
With little-used, fifth-year senior Anthony Magazu handling the quarterback duties, the Flashes managed just 31 yards through the air while completing 5-of-14 passes. If you mix in the 34 yards lost on the four times Buffalo sacked Magazu, the KSU aerial offense totaled negative-3 yards.
The Flashes tried to mix in a little wildcat offense with redshirt freshman wide receiver Matthew Hurdle lining up at quarterback, but that added little spark.
If true freshman running back Dri Archer couldn’t find the corner on a sweep, KSU just knew it wasn’t going to find any offense.
Archer rushed for 93 yards on 10 carries after the Flashes turned to him in a halftime adjustment. A series of late third-quarter runs by Archer set the stage for Cortez’s game-tying 39-yard field goal in the third quarter. After Principe drilled a 24-yarder midway through the final quarter, Archer broke away for a 77-yard kick return to set the stage for Cortez’s second field goal — a 26-yarder with 5:25 to play to tie the score again.
“I was just trying to make something happen to put our offense in good field position,” Archer said of his weaving return. “I got outside, broke left and tried to get as much as I could. But I couldn’t get into the end zone.”
Archer breaking free was KSU’s only chance to post a touchdown. The Flashes started four drives inside Buffalo territory. Three of those drives went backwards. The final drive netted only four yards before the Flashes settled for the Cortez field goal.
Kent State’s defense was the only bright spot of the day. But after stifling Buffalo’s offense all day long, the Flashes couldn’t stop the Bulls rushing attack with the game on the line.
After taking over for one final drive with 5:16 to play, Buffalo used a few variations on one theme to drive straight down the field for Principe’s game-winning kick. A combination of KSU missed tackles, one painful facemask penalty and some big zone runs by Bulls quarterback Zach Maynard and bruising running back Brian Thermilus made it an easy march for Buffalo (5-7, 3-5).
“We tried to put it in those guys’ hands,” said Buffalo head coach Turner Gill. “We ran the same play, but ran it from different formations.
“It was great to see. On that last drive, when you have to see the offense go down and score, and they (Buffalo’s offense) didn’t execute throughout the whole game, they took it down and ran out almost all the clock.”
Thermilus finished with 123 yards on 19 carries, including a key 16-yard run in the final minute to make Principe’s final boot an easier chip-shot.
“When you hold someone to nine points, you should win a football game,” said Martin. “The defense giving up that last drive is not the deal. Our problems were the offense’s inability to score.”
•••
David Carducci can be contacted at dcarducci@recordpub.com