Under the Saturday night lights, the Central Connecticut football team could not stay out of their own way as they dropped their second game of the season 41-24 against the Columbia Lions.

The game started with stout defensive play from the Blue Devils as they only allowed a little over 100 yards of offense in the first half. This continued, as the defense got stops when its opponents started its drive outside of Central’s red zone.

Head coach, Pete Rossomando acknowledged that the defense was positive for most of the night.

“The defense played will in sprouts, our whole defensive front was dominant, they were in the backfield a lot, they put a lot of pressure on the quarterback, I would say they had a physical effect on the game,” Rossomando said.

But the Blue Devils’ three turnovers led to the Lions getting away with 17 points. Two of those three drives started inside the CCSU five-yard line.

When you look at the special teams play, they had their highs, and certainly the lows. The Blue Devils got their first score of the game courtesy of junior punt returner Tajik Bagley, who took an 82-yard punt to the house, which was Central’s first punt return house call since Nov. 1, 2003.

Unfortunately, that was Bagley’s only high on special teams as he followed up with muffing two punts that Columbia would end up recovering. One of which, was not his fault as his teammate ran into him.

After the muffed punts, Rossomando continued to put him out there and described him as “a great player, a great kid, a great competitor and there’s no reason not to put him out there, he is a playmaker.”

The Lions were pressuring senior quarterback Jacob Dolegala early and often and the offense was never able to get in a rhythm.

A contributing factor was “discipline and focus,” according to Rossomando.

“I bet we dropped 10 balls out there tonight, it’s about 50 guys on the offensive side of the ball focusing on the important things during the course of the week,” he said.

Overall, Dolegala finished with a good stat line (28-43 for 320 yards, one touchdown and a 135.3 QBR) but there were multiple plays left on the field that could have resulted in Blue Devils touchdowns.

One was a deep post shot intended for sophomore wide receiver Tyshaun James, who caught the sole touchdown from Dolegala on the night on a beautiful back shoulder throw and catch in the second quarter.

On a crucial fourth-and-one, down 27-17, the Blue Devils dialed up a play-action deep shot intended for Senior wide receiver Courtney Rush, who is known for his big play ability.

Both plays coming just short as the receivers got a hand on the ball but couldn’t bring it in. Rossomando thought those plays were “layups.”

He continued “we got a great quarterback but he’s gotta make those plays. That’s the end of story, he’ll tell you that himself right now.”

Much like the offense, defense, and special teams, this night can and will be looked back as missed opportunities for Central.

The Blue Devils will look to quickly put this sloppy loss behind them as they kick off a four-week road trip against Fordham on Sept. 22.