Central Michigan rolls past New Mexico State on homecoming
Central Michigan tight end Tony Poljan and wide receiver Kalil Pimpleton celebrate after scoring a touchdown against New Mexico State Oct 12 at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
Quinten Dormady dropped back with just under nine minutes to play in the first quarter.
The senior graduate transfer quarterback read the New Mexico State defense and found wide receiver Kalil Pimpleton on the right sideline.
Pimpleton caught the ball in stride and cruised into the end zone for the 44-yard score.
"He did a good job of commanding the offense," coach Jim McElwain said about Dormady. "You could see on that pass, he really cut that ball loose."
Dormady's pass opened the scoring in Central Michigan's 42-28 win over New Mexico State in Kelly/Shorts Stadium on Saturday.
While the score put CMU (4-3, 2-1 Mid-American Conference) ahead early, it was also Dormady's first completion after missing his first two passes.
It was Dormady's first completion since taking the starting job back, as well.
He was injured against Wisconsin, then David Moore stepped in to take over the offensive reins in place of Dormady.
After four games and two wins, Moore was suspended by the NCAA after he tested positive for an illegal substance. The Tennessee and Houston transfer Dormady took back the starting job he won coming out of fall camp.
While Dormady opened the scoring, he was also able to put the game way out of reach midway through the fourth quarter.
He found tight end Tony Poljan wide open in the end zone and floated the ball to the former quarterback. On the ensuing two-point conversion, Dormady hit Pimpleton over the middle.
Dormady finished the day 14 of 24 passing for 134 yards and the two touchdowns.
The Chippewa running backs took over throughout the rest of the first half.
Running back Kobe Lewis was able to find the end zone on CMU's second drive of the day.
After confusion from the Chippewas' wide receivers on their positioning, Lewis took the handoff and patiently waited for a gap to open up and exploded through when it opened up.
Lewis was able to accelerate past the Aggie defense for 57 yards to extend the CMU lead to 14-0.
Later, Lewis was able to speed through the Aggie defense again. He also showed his agility as he spun through a tackle and broke one more at the goal line for the 20-yard touchdown.
"That's one thing we've talked about since coach McElwain got here, finish," Lewis said. "That was the only thing going through my mind on that run was to finish."
The Aggies (0-7) were able to cut the CMU lead in half. Josh Adkins found Naveon Mitchell in the right corner of the end zone for a 4-yard passing score.
NMSU was able to chip away at the Chippewa defense to break through to the end zone.
Adkins brought the Aggies to within a score again when he found OJ Clark on an 11-yard post route in the end zone.
After the score to Clark, CMU's Jonathan Ward shut down the momentum with one play.
Ward carved up the NMSU defense and blew by everyone for a 75-yard score to bring the Chippewas' lead to 28-14.
NMSU senior running back Jason Huntley took in a 37-yard run for a touchdown with under a minute to go in the first half.
McElwain made form tackling a point of emphasis during the week of practice, which seemed to break down in a couple of spots throughout the game, specifically on that play.
"I felt like some of our guys were just looking to shoulder tackle and not wrap up," McElwain said. "Good teams don't do, bad teams try to. We let the guys out a couple of times, which we shouldn't."
After kicker Ryan Tice hit two field goals in the third quarter, the senior began the fourth quarter with a chaotic kickoff play.
The ball ricocheted off of a New Mexico State player and shot forward 20 yards. Tice had the ball in his hands but it slipped through, the Aggies recovered the ball on the Chippewas' 35-yard line.
Following Dormady's 7-yard touchdown pass to Poljan in the end zone, the Aggies got back on the board due to blown coverage from CMU's secondary.
The mistake from the defense left receiver Jared Wyatt alone, and Adkins had no problem finding him for a 34-yard score to cut CMU's edge to 42-28 with 6:21 remaining.
But Wyatt's touchdown was not nearly enough to mount a comeback, as the Chippewas ran down the clock with backup quarterback Tommy Lazzaro to secure the 14-point victory.
Up next
Improving to 4-3 overall, Central Michigan gets back to MAC play on the road against Bowling Green at 2 p.m. Oct. 19.
