Central Michigan football handles Monmouth, showdown with Syracuse looms
A dominating victory against Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponent Monmouth was what most fans expected entering the second week of the Central Michigan University football season.
All week first-year Head Coach John Bonamego warned that the Hawks should not be overlooked.
Yet CMU handled MU 31-10 on Saturday, and the team sits at 1-1 on the season as it prepares for its first road trip of the year.
A more than 500-mile flight awaits the team this weekend, as it heads to Syracuse for a 12:30 p.m. showdown with the Orange on Saturday at the Carrier Dome.
For Bonamego, Saturday’s victory was his first win coaching at his alma mater, and a long-awaited feeling of accomplishment leading the team he inherited late in the offseason.
“It feels like a win. It’s great, I love the feeling,” he said. “George Allen said that ‘When you lose, you die, and then when you win you’re reborn.’ It’s good to be a little bit reborn.”
A sustained and methodic first-half passing attack helped the Chippewas cruise to victory, led by junior quarterback Cooper Rush.
The third-year starter finished the game with 328 yards, was 25-for-36 passing and had three touchdowns. His biggest mistake came late in the third quarter, but Monmouth could not turn Rush's second interception of the year into points.
“I just saw guys open, so I threw it this week,” Rush said. “They were loading the box on us and it was tough to run the ball. We were able to find holes and make plays.”
Rush’s top target on Saturday was sophomore wide receiver Mark Chapman, who caught six passes for 61 yards.
Chapman showed his value and versatility to Bonamego and the CMU coaching staff during the first quarter when he took a handoff from Rush and ran the ball 11 yards in for a score, capping a 14-play, 73-yard opening drive to give the Chippewas a 7-0 lead.
When Rush needed a big play during the first half, he looked to tight end Ben McCord, who had one of the best games of his CMU football career.
McCord’s two receptions added up to 100 yards, capped by an insurance 83-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter.
CMU put the game out of hand late in the first half with a roll-out 1-yard toss from Rush to fullback Joe Bacci, giving the home team a 31-3 advantage at halftime.
To beat Syracuse, all of CMU’s receiving options will need to gain space in the open field and provide balance to Bonamego’s attacking scheme.
“All those guys can make plays, I’ve just got to put it somewhere where they can make a play on it,” Rush said.
CMU’s run game remains the biggest area of concern through the first two weeks of the season. Chippewa rushers combined for only 158 yards on the ground on 62 carries in the first two games.
Most notably, CMU running backs have yet to reach the end zone this season. Rush and Chapman have the team’s only rushing scores.
“About the only thing we didn’t do was run the football,” Bonamego said. “It was a little bit better; we showed some spurts, but overall we still need to be able to run the ball better.”
Defensively, CMU kept the struggling Monmouth offense contained. The solid open-field tackling the Chippewas displayed in the team’s opener was present again during Week 2 and the Hawks were left little playmaking room.
The closest Monmouth came to scoring during the first half was on a trick play flee-flicker during their second drive of the game, but quarterback Cody Williams’ pass fell incomplete.
"I think we lucked out that it was a bad throw,” defensive lineman Shafer Johnson chuckled after the game. “He was open.”
Senior defensive end Blake Serpa saw limited action while recovering from a hamstring injury, but was involved in a CMU defensive effort that held the Hawks to less than 30 yards of offense during the first half.
Junior defensive end Joe Ostman left the game with a lower leg injury.
Bonamego said x-rays did not show broken bones, but the defensive lineman will be re-evaluated this week to see if he will have to miss any playing time.
With Ostman out of the game early, and Serpa in and out of action, the Chippewas held Monmouth to 157 yards of total offense and only 27 yards in the first half.
The Chippewas defense will have a week to prepare for a Syracuse offense that gave last year’s best defense in the Mid-American Conference major trouble.
SU is 2-0 this season after defeating Wake Forest 30-17 on Saturday.
The Orange defeated CMU 40-3 in Mount Pleasant last year, thanks largely to three rushing touchdowns from quarterback Terrel Hunt, who tore his ACL in SU's 2015 season opener and will not play for the rest of the season.
“We owe them from last year," said senior linebacker and team captain Tim Hamilton after Saturday’s win.
Rush echoed Hamilton’s claim.
“(That game) still stings from last year,” Rush added. “We didn't think they were that much better than us, but they kicked our butts.
“We want that one back.”
