The Huskies traveled to Muncie, Indiana for the 11th annual Battle of the Bronze Stalk and left with a 24-16 victory. The game marked the 10th straight win for the Huskies over their conference rivals, bringing their MAC record to a solid 3-0 and leveling their overall record to 3-3. Head Coach Rod Carey said he was happy with the fight he saw in his team.

“I’m really proud of our team,” Carey said. “We had the opportunity to close the game out, and didn’t [on offense], but we have a tough group. They are fighters; they are finishers, and they know how to win.”

The Huskies’ offense got rolling early when sophomore quarterback Marcus Childers found senior wide-receiver D.J. Brown for a 13-yard touchdown on their second drive of the game. The touchdown was set up by a 64-yard run by junior running back Marcus Jones. Brown was all over the field as he finished with 49 receiving yards, 27 yards rushing and a kick-off return for 25 yards.

Early in the second quarter, Childers led a 71-yard drive ending with a one-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Tre Harbison to give the Huskies an early 14-0 lead. Harbison carried the ball 15 times for 48 yards on the afternoon.

Ball State bounced back, scoring a pair of field goals late in the second quarter to send the game to halftime 14-6.

In the third quarter, the Huskies put together an 80-yard drive. Harbison capped the drive off by punching in his second touchdown of the day with another one-yard run. The score wouldn’t stay 21-6 for long as Ball State put together a 64-yard drive themselves, resulting in a field goal.

In the fourth quarter, the Huskies had a 21-9 lead and seemed to be in control. Ball State’s junior linebacker Ray Wilborn intercepted Childers’ pass and returned it to the three yard line. One play later, Ball State ran a late touchdown to put them within striking distance at 21-16.

The Huskies responded on the next drive with a 27-yard field goal to give them some breathing room with five and a half minutes to go. The 24-16 score would remain as the Huskies defense forced a turnover on downs as the time expired,keeping the Bronze Stalk in DeKalb.

Coach Carey said his team was able to play a complete game against a very difficult quarterback.

“We were persistent,” Carey said. “We didn’t give up and we played a four-quarter game today. It’s hard to go on the road and get league wins. The defense was out there a ton against a very good, complete quarterback, and we didn’t get to him that much, but we were able to get him off his spot some and that’s what we needed to do.”

Childers finished the game completing 18 of his 29 pass attempts for 143 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Jones carried the load for the ground game, rushing for 130 yards on 12 attempts.

For the Huskies’ defense, junior linebacker Antonio Jones-Davis led the way with 16 total tackles, one sack and one tackle for loss. Junior linebacker Lance Deveaux Jr. made his presence felt adding nine total tackles, one sack and two tackles for loss.

The Huskies look to keep their perfect conference record going into the homecoming matchup against MAC East rivals: the Ohio University Bobcats. The game will kick-off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Huskie Stadium.