Massachusetts ended a four-game losing streak the hard way on Wednesday night, needing an overtime period, a blocked moment that wasn't actually blocked, and a missed extra point from Ball State to escape with a 31-30 win. William Watson III capped it with a 13-yard touchdown run in the extra session, and Derek Morris, who'd already missed one kick earlier in the night, made the one that mattered.
This was not a clean game. It was the kind of back-and-forth, error-filled, deeply entertaining mess that makes a Wednesday night MAC game worth staying up for, even if almost nobody outside Amherst and Muncie was watching.
How did UMass beat Ball State in overtime?
Ball State forced the extra period the hard way, needing a nine-play, 75-yard drive capped by Keldric Luster's 2-yard touchdown run with just 25 seconds left in regulation to tie it at 24. That's a gut punch of a sequence for any defense: your opponent travels three-quarters of the field in the final minutes and still has time to spare. UMass's defense had the game basically won and watched it slip away in real time.
Ball State got the ball first in overtime and Jalen Bonds, who ran for 132 yards on just 17 carries on the night, punched it in from a yard out. Standard operating procedure says you kick the extra point, go up seven, and dare the other team to match you. Instead, Brody Boehm's attempt sailed wide left. One missed kick, and suddenly Ball State's touchdown was worth six instead of seven.
checked the almanac: the sport changed its overtime math back in 2021, when the NCAA mandated two-point conversion attempts starting in a second extra period, specifically to stop these games from turning into an endless parade of chip-shot kicks. This one never got that far. It didn't need to. A single missed PAT in the very first overtime was enough to flip the whole night.
UMass had the answer waiting. Watson III broke free for a 13-yard touchdown run, and this time it was Morris stepping up for the extra point, and he made it. Final: 31-30, Minutemen.
The box score behind the chaos
Watson III was the best player on the field for 60 minutes and the best player on the field in overtime, too. He finished 17 of 25 for 302 yards through the air and added the game-tying... no, the game-winning... legs when it counted most. His 64-yard touchdown pass to Jabari Lewis just before halftime gave UMass a 14-10 lead, and his 1-yard touchdown run put the Minutemen up 21-17 with 2:31 left in the third quarter.
| Stat | UMass | Ball State |
|---|---|---|
| Final score | 31 | 30 |
| Passing yards | 302 (Watson III) | 182 (Luster) |
| Completions | 17-of-25 | 17-of-27 |
| Leading rusher | Curtis Kimmons, 85 yds | Jalen Bonds, 132 yds |
| Record entering | 4-4 | 3-5 |
| Record after | 5-4 (2-3 MAC) | 3-6 (2-3 MAC) |
Curtis Kimmons added 85 rushing yards for UMass, and Elijah Faulkner scored from a yard out as well. On the other side, Luster was steady if unspectacular through the air, 17 of 27 for 182 yards with a touchdown pass, and Bonds was the engine of Ball State's ground game all night.
The detail that'll stick with Ball State's coaching staff is Derek Morris's own up-and-down evening on the UMass side: he missed a 36-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter, then made a 23-yarder in the third, then delivered the extra point that actually decided the game. Kickers live these nights. The guy who misses in the first quarter is sometimes the same guy who makes the kick that wins it four hours later. That's football.
What this means going forward
For Massachusetts, this was about more than one win. The Minutemen had dropped four straight before Wednesday, and now sit at 5-4 overall and 2-3 in Mid-American Conference play, a half-step back into bowl eligibility conversation territory with a handful of games left. Snapping a losing streak with an overtime escape against a conference opponent is the kind of result a program can build a little momentum around, especially one that's been treading water in MAC play.
For Ball State, it's a tougher pill. The Cardinals are 3-6 overall, 2-3 in conference, and they did just about everything right in the final minutes of regulation, a 75-yard scoring drive under real pressure, and still found a way to lose because of one missed kick in overtime. Those are the games that stay with a locker room.
Both programs turn around quickly. Ball State hosts Buffalo next Wednesday, and UMass travels to Toledo, which is currently tied for second place in the MAC and squeezed out a 20-17 win of its own on Wednesday night over Sacramento State behind 135 rushing yards from CJ Miller. That's a step up in competition for a Minutemen team that just found out it can win the close ones.
What I'm watching next
Whether UMass's overtime heroics translate against a Toledo team playing meaningfully better football right now, and whether Ball State's defense can tighten up the kind of late-game execution that let Wednesday's win slip away in the final 25 seconds of regulation.
