Too Little, Too Late For Chippewas At MSU

Saturday, September 29

East Lansing, Mich.

12 p.m.

Central Michigan University

1-4

Michigan State

3-1 , 1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Central Michigan

Michigan State

Photo by: Allissa Rusco

9/29/2018 4:15:00 PM | Football

Box Score Photo Gallery

Chippewas fall to No. 24 Michigan State, 31-20

By: Andy Sneddon

Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Building blocks, silver linings and looking ahead.

All bring a measure of solace for the Central Michigan football team.

The Chippewas showed some life by scoring 17 fourth-quarter points after falling into a 31-3 deficit on Saturday before succumbing to 21^st-ranked Michigan State, 31-20, on Saturday before 73,752 at Spartan Stadium.

CMU slipped to 1-4 and plays host to Buffalo (4-1) on Saturday, Oct. 6 (noon) in the Chippewas' homecoming. It is also a return to Mid-American Conference play for CMU, which is 0-1 in league play. The Bulls are 1-0.

"Obviously disappointed in the outcome," CMU coach John Bonamego said. "We didn't come here to play a game, we came here to win a game and we didn't do that.

"However I'm very proud of the fight in our football team and how they came out and played in the second half and made a game of it. Just didn't quite have enough left at the end to pull it out. But I am very proud of the leadership on this team; I'm proud of the coaching staff; and I'm proud of all of our players for really believing."

Michigan State (3-1) dominated through three quarters, holding a near 2-to-1 possession-time advantage and grinding out two third-quarter scoring drives in upping its lead to 31-3.

The Chippewas got a 10-yard touchdown pass from Tommy Lazzaro to Julian Hicks, a 40-yard Ryan Tice field goal, and a 29-yard TD pass from Jonathan Ward to Tony Poljan in the fourth quarter to make it interesting.

But after Poljan's touchdown reception, the first of his career, with 6:44 left, the Chippewas never got the ball back as Michigan State simply ran out the clock with a 13-play, 67-yard drive during which the Spartans picked up five first downs.

And save for the fourth-quarter stretch in which the Chippewas covered an onside kick and scored 17 points, the final drive was indicative of how the day went. MSU finished with 23 first downs to CMU's 13, and a 345-245 edge in total yardage.

The Chippewas finished with 63 yards rushing against the nation's No. 1 run defense and gained 182 through the air.

"It's a game of execution, it's a game of mistakes," Bonamego said. "We had too many penalties today, too many turnovers in the first half and you can't do that against a good football team like Michigan State and expect to win.

"Really proud of the effort. … We'll improve off of it and we're going to be a very good football team down the stretch."