KALAMAZOO, Mich. --  A dominant performance by the Western Michigan defense helped the Bronco Football team wrap up the 2022 season with a 20-14 win over Mid-American Conference West Division champions Toledo, at Waldo Stadium on Friday afternoon.
 
The Bronco defense forced four turnovers, including a pick-six by Keni-H lovely, and held Toledo's high-powered offense to just 334 yards of offense. Senior Ryan Selig had a team-high 12 tackles, while Zaire Barnes had nine in his final game as a Bronco. Seniors Dorian Jackson and Bricen Garner also had interceptions, while Marshawn Kneeland two sacks and a forced fumble. Andre Carter had two tackles for loss, one sack, one forced fumble and three quarterback hurries.
 
On the offensive end it was Sean Tyler rushing for a game-high 131 yards on 18 carries and one touchdown. Tyler wrapped up the season with 1,027 yards, becoming the seventh Bronco in program history to have two 1,000-yard rushing seasons.
 
Senior punter Nick Mihalic made WMU history, setting the program single-game punt record with 14 and became the all-time recorder holder for career punts with 242. Mihalic passed J. Schroeder's (2012-15) previous record of 230 on his third punt of the game.
 
After a scoreless first quarter Tucker Gleason led the Rockets down the field to wrap up a six-play, 50-yard drive and rushed it in from two yards out to put Toledo up 7-0.
 
WMU had to punt on the next possession, but on the first play of Toledo's ensuing drive Lovely stepped in front of a UT wide receiver and ran it back 36 yards into the endzone to tie it up at 7-7 after a Palmer Domschke extra point.
 
Late in the second quarter the Rockets were pinned back near their own endzone and had to punt from the 14. Jonathon Batzke's punt only went 35 yards and the Broncos took over at the Toledo 49 with 1:03 left in the half. Jack Salopek connected with Corey Crooms on the opening play to get WMU down to the 32. Salopek then ran for 13 yards to get it down to the 19 and a rush by Tyler got WMU down to the 16 with two seconds left in the half.  Domschke nailed a 33-yard field goal to send the Broncos to the locker room with a 10-7 lead.
 
Early in the third quarter, Gleason took off up the middle but was caught from behind at the WMU 24 by Carter and fumbled. Barnes scooped up the ball and returned it to the WMU 31 to give the Broncos back the ball. Three plays later Tyler took off for a 63-yard touchdown run to put WMU up 17-7.
 
Domschke added a 38-yard field goal with 1:30 left in the third quarter to push the Broncos ahead 20-7.
 
WMU routinely pinned Toledo in its own end in the fourth quarter but the Rockets ended up scoring on a 94-yard drive to cut the lead to 20-14 with 5:11 to play.
 
The Broncos punted again with 3:35 to play but two plays later senior Bricen Garner picked off Gleason at the Toledo 42. WMU wasn't able to pick up a first down but caused the Rockets to use its final two timeouts. After two incompletions, Gleason rushed for nine yards setting up a third and one. Selig blitzed on the fourth down play, forcing an incompletion and giving Western Michigan the ball back to run out the clock and seal the win.