Homecoming Heroes
Chippewas keep conference title hopes alive with Homecoming victory
Former and current Central Michigan University students watched alongside one another as the CMU football team’s two most prevalent names led the Chippewas to its third victory of the 2014 season.
Wide receiver Titus Davis and running back Thomas Rawls accounted for 91.2 percent of CMU’s yardage in its 28-10 victory over the Bobcats.
It was the first victory for the Chippewas on Homecoming Weekend since 2009 and snapped a three game losing streak.
“We’ve played a pretty difficult schedule so far,” said Head Coach Dan Enos. “I just want to say how proud I am of this team right now. Last week, we had a lot of guys that felt like they didn’t play very well. We challenged them heading into this one.”
Davis caught a career-high 10 passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns. Rawls carried the ball 40 times for 229 yards a pair of touchdowns of his own.
With a Western Michigan loss on Saturday, the Chippewas sit at third place in the Mid-American Conference West Division standings behind Northern Illinois.
The Chippewas head to DeKalb, Ill. Next Saturday for a showdown with the Huskies.
A week after surrendering nearly 600 yards in a blowout loss to Toledo, the CMU defense held Ohio to just 187 yards. The Bobcats were a miserable 3-of-12 on third down.
“We got exposed last week,” said defensive back Tony Annese. “We wanted to make a statement. Our defense as a whole got after them.”
Defensive end Blake Serpa pointed to the CMU offense, which scored a pair of touchdowns on its first two drives of the game.
“When the offense can do that, it is going to make it hard for the other team to get any sort of rhythm,” he said.
Davis, who caught CMU’s first two touchdowns, said it was a “mindset of desperation” that led to the unit’s best performance of the year.
“Something that we said the last couple days was fourth-and-goal,” Davis said. “Just play every play like it’s fourth-and-goal, and we did that. We needed this win bad. Anytime you lose three straight, that’s rough.”
As the CMU defense held, Enos wore the Bobcats linebackers down with his most productive power back: Rawls.
The Flint-native fumbled on his first carry before going on to have a career day.
“As a running back, there’s no excuse,” Rawls said. “It did kind of get me upset. Sometimes, certain plays get you going a little bit, just a little bit of motivation. It did ring the bell in my head to say, ‘hey, you’ve got to make up for it,’ and that’s what I did.”
With a Western Michigan loss on Saturday, the Chippewas sit at third place in the Mid-American Conference West Division standings behind Northern Illinois.
The Chippewas head to DeKalb, Ill. Next Saturday for a showdown with the Huskies.
Enos said his team got back on track with a win that keeps CMU’s MAC title hopes alive.
“We certainly did not play perfectly,” he said. “But we have to maintain this intensity … this mentality. We can’t have a dip
now. We can’t lose focus.
“Don’t believe a word (the compliments) say.”
