The Central Connecticut State University Blue Devils fell to the Long Island University Sharks 24-23 in a nationally televised game on Thursday, Oct. 26, at Arute Field.
With the loss, Central dropped to 1-3 in the Northeast Conference and 3-5 overall.
Coming off a dominant performance against Wagner, sophomore quarterback Matt Jenner threw for 167 yards and two touchdowns.
Nearly half of Jenner’s production came on one play, an 81-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Isiah Williams. Williams had two catches for 107 yards and the touchdown.
Junior receiver Davion Johnson hauled in Jenner’s second touchdown as part of a three-catch, 30-yard night.
Despite his productive day, Williams said he was not content with his personal achievement.
“We have to watch some film, get back to the drawing board, and get back to the basics,” Williams said.
The potent Central rushing game was strong yet again. The majority of the unit’s production came from sophomore running back Elijah Howard’s 128 yards on 17 carries.
Defensively, the Blue Devils were strong, holding LIU to just 370 yards of offense. Central’s issue was their inability to get off the field. LIU ran 70 total plays and fended off CCSU in the fourth quarter by winning the overall time of possession battle by 10 minutes.
Reigning NEC Defensive Player of the Week, Kimal Clark, paced the unit with 11 total tackles, including two for loss.
As a team, the Blue Devils scraped together seven tackles for loss, three pass breakups, and three quarterback hurries.
Junior defensive end Ahmad Craig got the defense on the board in the second quarter after he scooped up a mishandled ball deep in LIU territory and returned it 13 yards for a touchdown.
Craig, a vocal leader for the defense, said the Blue Devils kept the energy on the field high.
“We come out with the same energy every week,” Craig said. “We come out, and we feel like we have something to prove. A lot of people count us out as a team, but we got a lot of heart.”
Working with a short week of practice, head coach Adam Lechtenberg said he kept things simple for his team.
“We took the pads off to try to give our kids a chance to play fresh,” Lechtenberg said. “We’re beat up, like everybody this time of year. The biggest thing is to get our guys healthy.”
CCSU plays back-to-back games on the road to begin November before returning to Arute Field to end the regular season on Saturday, Nov. 18, against Saint Francis University.
