EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Not impressive in their season opener, it took two late touchdowns in the fourth quarter to quite Central Michigan’s chances of an upset. MSU had a 21-3 lead at the half but CMU pulled within eight, 21-13, after three quarters. MSU scored two touchdowns in the final six minutes of the game to secure the win.
“I was proud of the effort from our football team tonight. Western, they’re very well coached and they gave us everything we could handle, and I have a lot of respect for that football team. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I like what I saw in the locker room after the game from our team and from our leaders. It’s a hungry football team, and we know we need to get better, and it was just a very mature locker room after the game,” said head coach Mel Tucker.
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The Spartans had 430 yards of total offense led by Payton Thorne’s 12-of-24 performance at quarterback for 233 yards and four touchdowns. Jalen Berger ran for 120 yards on 16 attempts for one touchdown rounding out the scoring.
Berger’s touchdown came on a fourth-and-one attempt with 6:30 left in the game and MSU only up by eight points. His push into the end zone was what MSU needed to put the game away.
“We needed to punch that one in, so we were able to get that done,” said Tucker. “We wouldn’t go for it if we didn’t believe that we could get it done. We’re not just hoping, or wishing. We believe and we have faith that we can get our pads down, no matter what they (Western Michigan) have got in there, and push that thing in.”
Jacoby Windmon led the defense with four sacks for negative-17 yards. Ben VanSumeren and Angelo Grose both had 11 tackles.
WMU scored first with a 27-yard field goal for the 3-0 lead with 6:31 to go in the first quarter. Responding with three straight touchdown passes, MSU took a 21-3 lead. Payton found Germie Bernand on a 44-yard pass for the first touchdown in the first quarter. Daniel Barker was on the receiving end at the 14:55 mark in the second quarter and then Keon Coleman made it 21-7 with a 41-yard touchdown pass with 12:26 left.
In the third quarter, WMU had a four-yard run from Sean Tyler making it 21-10 with just over eight minutes left. Palmer Domschke made the game interesting with a 42-yard field goal with 49 seconds left pulling within eight, 21-13. MSU put the game away late with their two touchdowns with just over six minutes left in the game.
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MSU will host Akron on September 10 at 4:00 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.
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