KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Western Michigan's football season came to a close with a 29-23 loss to Eastern Michigan on Senior Day Saturday at Waldo Stadium. The Eagles broke open a 17-17 tie in the third quarter and held on for their second-straight win over the Broncos.
With the victory, EMU retained the Michigan MAC trophy, awarded to the Michigan Mid-American Conference program that defeats the other two schools. Since all three, WMU, Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan finished 1-1 this season, EMU holds on to the trophy as its last winner in 2011.
Senior quarterback Alex Carder threw for 328 yards and two touchdowns, completing 29 of 50 attempts. He closed out his career at Western Michigan with 8,886 yards passing, 74 touchdowns and with 13 games of 300 or more yards passing. All three rank third in the Bronco record book.
Western Michigan outgained Eastern Michigan in total offense, 443 yards to 369. The Broncos turned the ball over twice however. Carder lost the ball as he was being sacked on the Broncos' opening drive and he was later picked off in the third quarter.
WMU junior wideout Justin Collins had his second straight 100-yard receiving game. He hauled in nine passes for 101 yards with one touchdown. Seeing his first real action in six games, freshman receiver Jaime Wilson caught seven balls for 74 yards. Senior tight end Blake Hammond caught a touchdown and had four catches for 62 yards.
Sophomore linebacker Devon Brant led the Bronco defense with 15 tackles, including one for a loss of four yards. Junior linebacker Terry Easmon made 11 stops. Junior rover Johnnie Simon made three tackles to give him 101 for the season. Simon became the first Bronco to record 100 tackles in back-to-back seasons since Bryan Lape in 2001 and 2002.
Redshirt freshman kicker Andrew Haldeman was 3-for-3 on field goal attempts, splitting the uprights from 37, 19 and 28 yards.
Eastern Michigan scored two touchdowns in the first quarter to take an early 14-0 lead. Eagle running back Dominique Sherrer punched in a three-yard touchdown run on the opening drive of the game and Donald Scott caught a five-yard touchdown from Tyler Benz with 3:46 left in the quarter.
The Broncos cut the lead in half at the start of the second quarter on a 10-play, 65-yard drive. Carder completed six of eight passes on the drive, including a 22-yard strike to Wilson on third down to keep the drive alive. On second and goal from the eight-yard line, Carder rolled to his left and found Hammon in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown.
Eastern Michigan was able to get in the red zone on its next possession and had first and goal from the nine, but WMU held the Eagles to a field goal and EMU carried a 17-14 lead into halftime.
Western Michigan received the ball to start the second half and tied the score at 17-17 on a 37-yard field goal by Haldeman with 13:11 left in the third.
The Eagles scored on their next two possessions to take the lead for good. Dylan Mulder booted a 43-yard field goal and Benz hit Alex Gillet in the middle of the end zone for an eight-yard touchdown. Eastern Michigan missed the PAT, and the Broncos trailed 26-17 at the end of the third quarter.
Carder led Western Michigan on an 81-yard drive in the fourth quarter and the Broncos briefly thought they had pulled within a field goal. On third and goal from the EMU eight-yard line Antoin Scriven caught a ball on the right from Carder and appeared to get into the end zone. After a review, the touchdown ruling on the field was overturned, as the replay video had shown that Scriven's knee came down at the one. WMU settled for a 19-yard Haldeman field goal.
Eastern Michigan went up nine, 29-20, on a 34-yard field goal by Mulder with 2:33 left in the game. The Broncos took the ball down to the EMU 10-yard line on its final drive and again came away with a field goal, this one from 28 yards out.
Trailing by six with 49 seconds left, Western Michigan attempted an on-sides kick, but Dustin Daniels came up with the ball for the Eagles and Eastern Michigan was able to run out the clock.
Western Michigan finishes 2012 with a 4-8, 2-6 MAC record, while the Eagles enter their final week of the season 2-9 and 1-6 in the conference.
