It had been six years since the football team won a homecoming game.

Junior defensive end Dan Bazuin and sophomore linebacker Thomas Keith helped insure the streak wouldn’t reach seven.

They led a stifling Central Michigan University defense in a 37-10 drubbing of Ohio today in front of a crowd of 16,017 at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

Bazuin had three sacks and a forced fumble and Keith recorded 14 total tackles and an interception in the win.

"We collapsed the pocket well all game and, as a whole, the defensive line pressured the quarterbacks well," Bazuin said.

OU quarterbacks Austen Everson and Brandon Jones combined for just 12_”of_”36 passing for 101 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Coach Brian Kelly pointed to CMU's physical play on defense as one of the key factors in the win.

"We preached about playing physical defense during practice all week," he said. "We did that and our ability to throw the ball and have a quick start were key for us today."

Senior quarterback Kent Smith started the scoring just 29 seconds into the game with a 10-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Justin Harper. Smith finished the afternoon 15- of-24 for 228 yards and two touchdowns.

The Bobcats quickly responded just 2:26 later when Everson tossed a 38-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Scott Mayle.

From there Central’s defense clamped down and held Everson to less than 40 passing yards the remainder of the game.

"We has three linemen out and a makeshift receiving corps," said OU coach Frank Solich. "But still I expected us to perform better. They came at us with a strong defensive team and we’re still struggling to find ourselves as a good team."

CMU reeled off 17 straight points to finish the half up 23- 17. True freshman Ontario Sneed had a 3-yard touchdown run and freshman kicker Rick Albreski booted a 28-yard field goal.

Junior wide receiver Damien Linson scored on a 78-yard punt return with 1:03 left in the first half.

Smith accounted for both touchdowns in the second half, as he ran one in for three yards and tossed a 32-yard touchdown pass to Sneed.

The Bobcats had the ball 10 minutes longer than CMU but failed to muster any big plays.

"We haven’t given up a whole lot of points the past few games," Bazuin said. "We just forced key turnovers and came up big on third down all say."

Solich said CMU scored early and often and his team couldn’t do the same.

"They (CMU) have the personnel there to make those big plays, and we had no answer," he said. "We’ve struggled to stop big plays all year, and at the same time have struggled to come up with ones of our own."

E-mail the author: defaultuser