AKRON, Ohio -- The Western Michigan football team rolled to its first victory of the season with a 58-13 win at Akron on Wednesday night.
 
WMU redshirt sophomore quarterback Kaleb Eleby had a career-high three touchdown passes and went 12-for-16 on the night for 262 yards. Senior wide receiver D'Wayne Eskridge caught three passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns, while Jaylen Hall caught a 68-yard touchdown pass. The Broncos' (1-0, 1-0 MAC) three-pronged rushing attack of La'Darius Jefferson, Sean Tyler and Jaxson Kincaide combined for 180 yards, with each scoring a touchdown. Jefferson, in his WMU debut, led the team with 70 yards on the ground. 
 
Western Michigan's defense held the Zips to just 256 yards on offense. Senior A.J. Thomas, in his first game at linebacker after converting from safety, had seven tackles, two for a loss, and an interception returned for a touchdown. Reigning Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Year Treshaun Hayward led the team with eight tackles and a half sack. Redshirt freshman defensive lineman Marshawn Kneeland had 1.5 sacks in his collegiate debut.
 
After an Akron on-side kick was called back due to an off-side call, the Broncos opened the game on their own 45-yard line thanks to a 45-yard return by Eskridge.  WMU drove into UA territory before stalling at the 31. Senior Thiago Kapps connected on a career-long 48-yard field goal to put Western Michigan up 3-0, with 10:33 left in the first quarter. 
 
The  Zips responded with a six-play 73-yard drive, capped off by a 14-yard touchdown pass from Zach Gibson to Micha Mathison to take a 7-3 lead. 
 
After another good return by Eskridge, the Broncos engineered a seven-play 60-yard scoring drive. Eleby completed his first pass of the game to Brett Borske to get the ball deep into Akron territory. After getting the ball down to the five-yard line, Eleby zipped a pass through traffic to Eskridge to retake the lead, 10-7. 
 
On the ensuing drive Thomas picked off an errant pass by Gibson and took it 38 yards into the endzone to push the lead to 16-7 after a missed extra point with 1:52 left in the first quarter. 
 
The Broncos once again marched down the field to push the lead to 23-10. Jefferson had a game-high 32-yard rush to open the drive and burst into Akron territory. Jefferson and Kincaide pushed the ball to the 12-yard line. WMU was facing a fourth and one and went for it, with Tyler running it in for the touchdown. 
 
The Zips responded with a field goal but were unable to stop WMU, once again. Eleby connected with Hall for a 68-yard touchdown, career-longs for both, to push the lead to 30-13 heading into the second half. 
 
After forcing the Zips to punt on the first drive of the third quarter, Eleby dumped a pass over the middle to Eskridge and he outran the defense 76 yards for the score, giving Eleby a newer career-long. 
 
With a 37-13 lead WMU extended it after rushing touchdowns by Kincaide, Jefferson and Christian Singleton to seal the win.
 
The Broncos return to Kalamazoo to host Toledo on Wednesday, Nov. 9. The game can be watched live on ESPN and heard live on the Bronco Radio Network