MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – On a cold day, the Central Michigan football team remained hot.
JaCorey Sullivan caught two touchdown passes, Marion Lukes returned a kickoff for a TD, and the CMU defense clamped down hard as the Chippewas posted a 31-10 victory on Friday over Eastern Michigan on Senior Day at chilly Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
It was CMU’s fourth consecutive win and its sixth in its last seven starts as it finished the regular season 8-4, 6-2 Mid-American Conference.
CMU, which now awaits a bowl invitation, took home the Michigan MAC Trophy for the first time since 2017, its reward for claiming wins over both Eastern and Western Michigan this season.
On the day after Thanksgiving, the Chippewa defense feasted, posting seven sacks while holding Eastern to 5 yards rushing and 226 total yards, a season low for a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent.
“What a gutsy, great effort by our defense,” CMU coach Jim McElwain said. “To hold any team, I don’t care who they are, to 5 yards rushing. The way (our defense) affected the quarterback and the way we didn’t let their playmakers get out on us like they have all year. Credit the secondary. I think it was an unbelievable defensive effort.”
CMU freshman running back Lew Nichols III continued his string of remarkable performances, rushing for 194 yards and a TD on a career-high 44 carries and catching two passes for 39 yards.
It was the seventh consecutive game in which Nichols has rushed for at least 100 yards as he raised his season rushing total to a Football Bowl Subdivision-best 1,710 yards and his all-purpose yardage total to 2,010.
Nichols has scored 17 TDs this season and his 1,710 rushing yards are the second most in program history to the 1,890 that Brian Pruitt posted in 1994.
“You’ve got to give it up to the guys up front blocking for him,” Sullivan said. “You’ve got to give it to that front five right there. Lew, it’s just expected of him to come out here and do that each and every day; day in and day out.”
Sullivan caught a 9-yard TD pass from Daniel Richardson late in the first quarter to put the Chippewas up, 7-0.
CMU never trailed, but struggled to find the end zone in the first half as it dealt with a strong northerly wind and the temperature dipping into the 20s by the end of the game.
Marshall Meeder booted a 37-yard field goal as time expired in the half to up CMU’s lead to 10-3, and then Lukes returned the second-half kickoff 100 yards to extend the lead to 17-3.
Eastern (7-5, 4-4), drew to 17-10 with a TD midway through the third quarter and then Sullivan caught a 26-yard scoring pass from Richardson to make it 24-10 early in the fourth.
Nichols scored on a 33-yard run with 2:55 remaining to ice it.
EMU quarterback Ben Bryant threw for 221 yards, but the Chippewas kept him under constant duress with a tenacious pass rush.
“Their offense was tops in the league in scoring per possession,” McElwain said. “In fact, the analytics skewed in their favor in a lot of things. At the end of the day, you can throw all that out. Our guys held them to 5 yards rushing and when you make a team one dimensional, you’ve got a pretty good chance to win.”
Defensive end Troy Hairston II, one of 12 Chippewa seniors playing his final game at Kelly/Shorts, had one of those sacks and finished with seven tackles.
“We went out there and did our job,” Hairston said. “Everybody was out there hungry, like a bunch of wild hyenas. When you watch the film, you’re going to see dudes hunting. That’s the mindset that we have in our (defensive line) room.”
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