Western defeats Central, take home cannon
Fumbled punt return leads to Chippewas’ loss at hands of Broncos in annual rivalry game
Mount Pleasant—The Victory Cannon Trophy is headed back to Kalamazoo.
A botched punt return by Central Michigan University football’s freshman Amari Coleman led to a game-winning Western Michigan University touchdown pass and the Chippewas’ 32-20 loss at the hands of their biggest rival in gut-wrenching fashion on Saturday afternoon at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
The loss drops CMU to 7-5 on the regular season and handed CMU its third and final Mid-American Conference loss in 2014.
The Chippewas now wait until Dec. 7 to learn if they have been selected for a college football bowl game and have been given an opportunity to avoid ending the season with Saturday’s deflating loss.
“After every loss it’s emotional, but it’s the last game for seniors at Kelly/Shorts,” said senior defensive back Jason Wilson. “It’s a little more emotional, but we just have to pick our heads up. It’s life.”
Coleman’s fumble came at a pivotal point in the game. Trailing by five points with 6:36 remaining, the Chippewas defense came through with an enormous stop in the form of linebacker Jabari Dean’s 3rd down sack.
But the clutch play was negated by Coleman’s mistake, which led to WMU’s put-away score: A seven yard touchdown pass from Broncos’ quarterback Zach Terrell to wide receiver Corey Davis.
“I really thought the difference in the game was the fumbled punt,” said Head Coach Dan Enos. “I thought we really had momentum. I thought we were ready to roll.”
Enos said he feels for his freshman punt returner, whose mistake cost CMU a win in its biggest game of the season.
“I feel terrible for him,” Enos said. “He’s a great young man. This whole team was trying to lift him up, that’s the type of guys we have. He’ll have a future (returning punts). He’ll do it for us next year.”
CMU started the game ideally. A pair of touchdown passes on his first two drives had quarterback Cooper Rush and the CMU offense in full control of the game early.
But zero rushing yards in the second half caught up with Enos’ group, as Rush threw two interceptions on CMU’s final two drives of the regular season.
“I’ve got to be honest to you, we really thought going into the game we could run the football and we didn’t do it very effectively,” Enos said. “Our formula is running the ball on second-and-medium, second-and-short. We weren’t generating that today. Then we had to start throwing the ball and that’s really not our formula to win.”
Senior wide receiver Titus Davis was brought to the ground illegally on a pass interference call and came up limping the first time he was thrown to. He finished the game with five catches for 88 yards and no scores.
Meanwhile, Davis’ little brother Corey, exploited the CMU secondary. Corey Davis caught nine passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns.
WMU nabbed its first lead of the game when Terrell, the reigning MAC Player of the Week, found a receiver from nine yards out with less than seven minutes until halftime.
Down by eight points and with the ball near midfield, Enos elected to punt on fourth and short early in the fourth quarter.
Wilson’s interception of Terrell on the ensuing drive set up a 37-yard field goal from CMU freshman kicker Brian Eavey to pull the Chippewas within five points midway through the fourth quarter.
Tight end Deon Butler led CMU is receiving, catching a season-high seven passes and one of Rush’ first-quarter touchdowns.
Senior running back Thomas Rawls carried the ball 19 times for just 76 yards and failed to reach the end zone.
Enos is now 2-3 vs. WMU and has finished 5-3 during MAC play each of that last three seasons.
“I thought we had a very good season,” Enos said. “Nobody had a tougher schedule than us. We accomplished some very good things.”
