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STATE SUPREMACY

CMU stuns Michigan State on late field goal

[special edition]

PHOTOS BY MATTHEW STEPHENS/PRESENTATION EDITOR

Central Michigan University celebrates Saturday afternoon after upsetting Michigan State University, 29-27, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. The last time CMU beat MSU was on Sept. 12, 1992.

Onside kick gives Chippewas lifeat Spartan Stadium

Tim OttuschAssistant Sports Editor

Aworthyupset

Sophomore running back Paris Cotton catches a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter against MSU’s Eric Gordon. Cotton’s catch put CMU within

one point of the Spartans, 27-26.

EAST LANSING — Seven-teen years to the day.

That was the last time CMU defeated Michigan

State — a 24-20 win on Sept. 12, 1992, one year after shocking the college football world with a 20-3 win on the same turf.

Today, with three seconds remain-ing in the two teams’ seventh meet-ing, the sea of green and white at Spartan Stadium fell silent once again.

Senior Andrew Aguila kicked the game-winning 42-yard field goal to put the Chippewas ahead, 29-27, en route to their first win of the season and second in as many years against a Big Ten foe.

“Every man to a man believed we were going to win the football game,” said CMU coach Butch Jones.

The Spartans had three seconds left after the kick was made for a long return.

It would not happen. CMU re-covered the ensuing kickoff after a squib-kick hit the back of a Spartan player on the front line of the return team as time expired.

The game-winning field goal may not have been the most important kick of the game.

After CMU scored a touchdown with 32 seconds remaining to make the game 27-26 MSU, Jones made the call to go for the two-point con-version.

It was not successful, which forced Aguila and CMU to attempt an onside kick. Aguila kicked the ball, bouncing it high and into the hands of senior wide receiver Bryan Anderson, the closest player to the sideline.

A MSU| 2

By andrew stover | Sports Editor

CMU 29, MSU 27 - Final statisticsScore by quarters 1 2 3 4 TotalCentral Michigan 3 10 0 16 29Michigan State 10 7 3 7 27

Team totals CMU MSUFirst downs 27 17

Rushing yards 66 101

Passing yards 352 215

Total offense 418 316

Possession 33:25 26:35

Game leadersPassingDan LeFevour (CMU)

33-of-46, 328 yards, 3 TD

ReceivingBryan Anderson (CMU)

6 catches, 120 yards, 0 TD

29 27

EAST LANSING — A sea of bright green and white shirts housed

ghost-like figures Saturday in Spartan Stadium.

Rather it was the scattered maroon-clad faithful that was celebrating at the end of the seventh all-time matchup between CMU and Michigan State.

CMU won the game it has flirted with for the past few seasons: a major upset over a Bowl Championship Series program.

Although the Chippewas defeated Indiana 37-34 last year, the Hoosiers are a perennial cellar occupant in the Big Ten conference.

Saturday’s 29-27 win was not the prototypical non-BCS over a BCS steal. CMU deserved it.

Many times, the team pulling the upset has no right winning the game.

A UpSet | 2

“The field goal is going to be remembered, but the on-side was executed perfectly,” Aguila said.

From the 41-yard line, the Chippewas had 28 seconds to move the ball into field goal range. They were able to get the ball to the 25-yard line in 20 seconds before the field goal attempt.

“(Aguila made) two ex-tremely pressure-type field kicks on the onside kick (and the field goal,)” Butch Jones said.

CMU outgained the Spar-tans in total yardage 418 to 316. Senior quarterback Dan LeFe-vour, who threw for 108 yards against Arizona last Saturday,

completed 33-of-46 passes for 328 yards with three touch-downs and one interception.

It was LeFevour’s first win as a starting quarterback against a Bowl Championship Series opponent. Last year, quarter-back Brian Brunner won 37-34 against Indiana, another Big Ten team, when LeFevour was injured.

“I feel like that monkey is finally off my back,” LeFevour said. “I wasn’t part of the Indi-ana victory last year.”

LeFevour, who resides in Downers Grove, Ill., said he felt the added pressure from an in-state game.

“We got a lot of guys from the Lansing area of Michigan,” he said. “This means so much to them, and I kind of got drift of that.”

LeFevour surpassed 12,000

total yards for his career in the game, and he passed Byron Leftwich for first place on the Mid-American Conference’s career total offense yardage list. He now has 12,166 total career yards.

Anderson had the most re-ceiving yards of either team, making six receptions for 120 yards. Junior wide receiver An-tonio Brown had 10 receptions for 71 yards and a touchdown. Sophomore running back Paris Cotton and junior Wide receiver Kito Poblah each had a touchdown reception.

CMU outscored the Spar-tans 16-7 in the fourth quar-ter.

MSU lost its first nonconfer-ence home game since Sept. 14, 2002, against California.

sports@cm-life.com

A couple mistakes by the fa-vorite and a heroic effort by the underdog can be enough.

But the formula was different Saturday in Spartan Stadium.

CMU outgained the Spar-tans 418-316, had almost seven minutes more of pos-session time and had 10 more first downs.

The defense showed its strong play against Arizona was not a fluke. The offense showed its play against Arizona was.

The Chippewas made their mistakes Saturday: a missed

field goal, an interception deep in MSU’s territory and a couple costly penalties.

But they made up for those and made the win all the more respectable. CMU didn’t play perfect — the team admitted so — yet it found a way to win the game.

CMU does not have a better football program than MSU. MSU has many more re-sources and it will be tough for Central to ever reach that level of prestige.

But for one game, CMU was better. Not lucky. Just better.A Jump StArt

The 2009 football team carved out its place in CMU

athletics history. It was only the second game of the year; now it needs to keep it going.

Coach Butch Jones said it right after the game. He said if the team fails to live up to its potential the rest of the season and loses games it should not, Saturday’s win will lose significance.

In 1991 and 1992, when CMU upset MSU, it didn’t go on to win the Mid-American Confer-ence Championship.

But judging by the product on the field Saturday, this just may be there year that trend is reversed.

sports@cm-life.com

Upset|continued from 1

MsU|continued from 1

PHOTOS BY MATTHEW STEPHENS/PRESENTATION EDITOR

MSU’s defensive end Tyler Hoover dives to tackle senior quarterback Dan LeFevour as he scrambles to pick up a first down in the fourth quarter.

MSU wide receiver Blair White attempts to catch a pass in the end zone as CMU defensive backs Dannie Bolden and Kirkston Edwards

take him to the ground. White dropped the ball and the pass was ruled incomplete.

Michigan State fans hang their heads after CMU’s Paris Cotton scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to put CMU down by one

point. CMU went for the two-point conversion and failed on the attempt.

A lone CMU fan celebrates after a first down against Michigan State in the first quarter of Saturday’s game. CMU had 27 first downs

compared to MSU’s 17.

2 || Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 || Central Michigan Life cm-life.com/category/sports[sports]