Banks, Edwards Lead Ball State to 30-10 Win

December 21, 2012; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Ball State Cardinals running back Jahwan Edwards (32) against the UCF Knights during the second half of the St. Petersburg Beef

Muncie, IN – The Ball State Cardinals opened up their new era of football with a 30-10 win over the Colgate Raiders at the friendly confines of Scheumann Stadium. They lost quite a few key pieces from last years team, including Keith Wenning and Willie Snead off of the offense. It didn’t seem to bother them against the lesser talented Raiders, and it’s always good to come away with a dominant win against lower competition.

Junior quarterback Ozzie Mann got the start for the Cardinals today, and performed well in his first game as signal caller. He threw for 203 yards and two touchdowns, while only turning the ball over once. The ground game was in full force as expected, with both Horactio Banks and Jahwan Edwards putting up big games. Banks carried the ball 13 times for 134 yards, and Edwards picked up 109 yards and a touchdown on 22 attempts. KeVonn Mabon led the way for Ball State in receiving with 11 catches for 110 yards and a touchdown.

Jake Melville was unable to get anything going for Colgate’s offense, and ended up with just 137 yards and no touchdowns through the air. James Travellin scored the only touchdown of the afternoon for the Raiders, and gained 26 yards on six carries. John Quazza was the only receiver that was able to make any kind of impact, catching six passes for 92 yards in the loss.

While this game wasn’t one that was expected to be any kind of test for the Cardinals, they were able to take the game seriously and take care of business. It’s good to see Banks back out on the field after tearing his ACL last season, and it’s obvious that he is in store for a big year once again. Edwards is a team leader, and was able to put together a great game as well.

It’s going to be a very interesting season to follow Ball State this year, and there will likely be ups and downs throughout the entire year. Dealing with the loss of as many key pieces as they lost is going to be difficult, but they saw players step up today that not many people have heard of. Ball State will face an extremely difficult road test next Saturday against the Iowa Hawkeyes.