Eagles get owned
Explosive plays lead to Chippewa's 38-7 trouncing of Eagles, clinching bowl eligibility
YPSILANTI- Central Michigan University’s football team went into Saturday’s game against Eastern Michigan University needing a win to become bowl eligible.
The Chippewas did that and more, defeating the Eagles 38-7 at Ypsilanti’s Rynearson Stadium. CMU was in control from the onset of the game on both sides of the ball.
“The story of the day was our defense,” said Head Coach Dan Enos after the win. “Our defense played very well and bottled up an explosive offense today. The offense did a nice job of running the ball and staying balanced, it was a good team win.”
Primarily filling in for Thomas Rawls at running back, who sustained a knee injury at Buffalo last weekend, was the trio of junior Saylor Lavallii, sophomore Martez Walker and true freshman Devon Spalding.
Lavallii had 105 yards on 24 rushes with two touchdowns on the afternoon while Walker had 24 yards on nine carries in the Chippewa’s victory.
“I think that our offensive line did a good job today moving some bodies around,” Lavallii said. “I had a feeling it was going to be a good day for us. We realized at halftime that it won’t just be one or two guys contributing.”
“We knew everyone was going to get to eat a little.”
With 18 touches against the Eagles, Spalding managed to rush for 154 yards with two touchdowns against the Eagles.
Each time he touched the ball it seemed as if a positive rushing result was soon to follow, including a 42-yard touchdown run in the second quarter on his first carry to put CMU up by three touchdowns.
“I’ve been telling everybody that Devon (Spalding) is going to be really good,” Enos said. “We’ve been waiting for this kind of game from him.”
While a majority of CMU’s success came on the ground, sophomore quarterback Cooper Rush was still able to pass the ball comfortably against the wind and EMU’s defense.
Rush completed 18 of his 23 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown in the victory. This included a 15-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Titus Davis in the corner of the end zone late in the first half.
Going into halftime, CMU was up 31-0 and they did not look back from there. From the onset of the second half the Chippewa’s defensive effectively shut down the Eagles.
Overall the Chippewa’s defense held EMU to 97 yards on 48 plays. The Eagles were on the field for just under 20 minutes while the Chippewas had a time of possession that ran over 40 minutes.
Now bowl eligible at 6-4 (4-2 in MAC) CMU looks forward to a bye week until play resumes with home games against Miami (Ohio) and rival Western Michigan University.
