In its last game of the season, the Bulls ended their season on a sour note losing to Central Michigan 55-28.
Central Michigan set the tone early on the opening kickoff as Tim Brazzel raced past the Buffalo special teams unit for a 79 yard touchdown return. Brazzel came up big again on special teams as he blocked junior punter Ben Woods' punt to give the Chippewas prime field position on Buffalo's 23-yard line. The blocked punt setup the first of two Marcel Archer touchdown runs to put CMU up 14-0 early in the first quarter.
"Our football team came ready to play and we again got off to a great start on special teams which obviously gave us a lot of momentum," said Central Michigan head coach Brian Kelly.
The Bulls managed to responded on the next drive as senior quarterback Tony Paoli drove the team down the field, and senior running back Steven King's capped off the drive with a one-yard touchdown run.
Following King's score, Central Michigan's quarterback Dan LeFevour proved too much for the Buffalo defense to handle. LeFevour threw for three touchdowns and ran for an additional one, as CMU rattled off 34 unanswered first half points. Along with the four scores, LeFevour accumulated 312 yards of total offense in one half of playing time.
"It's just not me, it's the entire team on the field," LeFevour said. "Those five guys up front deserve all the credit in the world and then I got four to five legitimate targets to throw to on every play. So I have a lot of weapons and things going for me. It's just being consistent and doing my job and big things will happen for me."
The second half of the game proved to be a different story. The Bulls (2-10, 1-7 Mid-American Conference) outscored the Chippewas (8-4, 7-1 MAC) by a 21-7 margin. However this was not enough to substantially threaten CMU's large lead.
"The second half we settled down and we were able to execute better at that given time," said Buffalo head coach Turner Gill. "It's tough to overcome that big of deficit and that's the bottom line."
Senior quarterback Stewart Sampsel, in for Paoli who left the game with an injured clavicle, tossed two touchdowns; one to senior tight end Chad Upshaw and another to junior wide receiver Terrence Breaux. Sampsel led the team in passing on his Senior Day game with 161 yards through the air.
"When something goes wrong with the person ahead of you, you have to be ready to step in," Sampsel said. "The coaches did a great job of getting us to that point, I was able to step in. The guys played fairly well. The score doesn't reflect a victory obviously. I was just fortunate for an opportunity."
Upshaw led the team in receiving with six catches for 83 yards and one touchdown. He finished his career with the most receiving yards by a tight end in Buffalo history with 972, and just one catch short of tying Chad Bartozek's record of most receptions by a Buffalo tight end with 94 receptions. Upshaw also went 22 consecutive games with a catch.
Defensively, the Bulls were led by junior defensive end Trevor Scott who made eight total tackles, two for a loss, and recorded his ninth sack of the season. Junior safety Kareem Byrom and senior linebacker Jeff Bublavi also made eight stops apiece. Bublavi finished the 2006 campaign with 110 tackles, which ties him for 10th most in a single season.
Friday's game was the final collegiate game for 12 seniors on Buffalo's roster.
"It started to hit some of us seniors last night," Upshaw said. "Early in the week it didn't hit us. Then we realized it was the time we would have a meal with the team. It was a lot of emotions. We did some good things but the season didn't turn out how we liked. Everyone was just appreciative of the opportunity to play here and accomplish the things we accomplished."
Though Buffalo's season is finished, CMU's season will continue on. The Chippewas, who are the MAC West Division Champions, will face the Ohio Bobcats in the MAC Championship Game on Thursday, Nov. 30. The game will be played at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich. and will be televised on ESPN. Kick off is at 7:30 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
