The SUNY Buffalo State football team had been looking forward to playing their first game under the lights at Coyer Field for quite some time.

However, Saturday night’s game turned into one to forget for the Bengals.

They turned the ball over four times, while the defense gave up 439 yards in a 51-7 rout at the hands of the Alfred University Saxons.

“It was very disappointing,” Buffalo State coach Jerry Boyes said. “A lot of our youth showed tonight and as things went on, we showed that we had some discipline issues. We were not a good team today but credit to Alfred, the better team obviously won.”

Buffalo State’s first two possessions appeared to set the tone for the rest of the game as both had promising starts and unfortunate ends.

The Bengals’ offense got going quickly as Kevin Torrillo connected with Jordan Evert on their first two plays to get into Alfred territory. Buff State got to the Saxons’ 35-yard line but the drive came to a sudden end as Torrillo was intercepted.

Buffalo State seemed to pick up where they left off when they got the ball back. Torrillo threw three-straight completions to get the Bengals past midfield before finding Vinny Gregory for 42-yard pass and catch to get down inside the five-yard line. However, Buffalo State could not punch it on four runs from two yards away.

After the getting stop, the Saxons were able to get to the other end of the field after Ben Burk connected with Kevin Bragaglia for 76 yards getting to the Bengals’ two-yard line. Unlike Buff State, Alfred was able to take advantage of their big play as Nasir Smith ran it in for the score on the next play, giving his team the 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

“We opened up and unfortunately we get a turnover,” Boyes said. “Then on the next then drive…when we get down there we expect to score. Then (Alfred) drove the ball the 98 yards and scored. We couldn’t finish things.”

A 37-yard punt return by Kevin Bragaglia to Buffalo State 10-yard line set up a second Nasir Smith touchdown, a 10-yard run, which gave the Saxons a 13-0 lead early in the second.

Martin Bailey finally put the Bengals on the board with a 91-yard touchdown run on the next possession.

Bailey was the only bright spot for the Bengals running for 112 yards on 14 carries.

A strong return to midfield on the ensuing kick set up a 9-play, 54-yard drive that was capped off by a Robert Smith four-yard touchdown run as Alfred took a 21-7 lead with under nine minutes left in the half.

Things went from bad to worse later in the quarter when the Bengals started a drive on their own 10-yard line and moved backward before Torrillo was taken down in the end zone for a safety putting the Bengals down 23-7 at the half.

The Alfred defensive line was winning the battle in the trenches Saturday night. Torrillo was under duress for much the game getting sacked four times, while the running game had trouble finding success as well.

“All the sudden you’re looking at your sheet and trying to find some magic,” Boyes said, “When you do that you’re in trouble. Everything starts up front and if you don’t have that you’re in for a long game.”

A pair of Burk touchdown passes gave Alfred a 37-7 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Eric Graham took Torrillo’s third interception of the game to the house with 10 minutes left the fourth.

James Kerr went nine yards into the end zone for the final score of the game.

Buffalo State falls to 1-4 overall and 1-1 in Empire 8 conference play. They will head to Cortland next Saturday for a noon kickoff.

View our photo gallery of the game courtesy our staff photog Aaron Bobeck