The first play from scrimmage obviously didn’t go the way Central Michigan’s football team planned.
“It shocked us a lot, but we felt like our defense was never going to quit,” CMU sophomore running back Martez Walker said in response to Tony Pierson’s 74-yard touchdown run just 18 seconds into Kansas University’s 24-10 victory over the Chippewas on Saturday in Memorial Stadium.
“No matter what happens, we’ve got to respond and make plays, just like they did,” added Walker, whose 18-yard burst tied the score at 10-10 with 6:11 left in the third quarter.
The Jayhawks (2-1) closed the game with two additional big plays for scores — a 60-yard pass from Montell Cozart to Justin McCay and a 30-yarder from Cozart to Corey Avery.
“KU … they had a great defense, I believe, a couple All-Big 12 players, very physical,” Chicago native Walker said after galloping for 56 yards off 10 carries in the first extensive duty of his career. “They have a great all-around defense, I feel.”
MAC team Central Michigan (2-2) finished with 279 yards to KU’s 369.
“I told our team after last week, we came in the locker room, and it was a different feeling,” CMU coach Dan Enos said of a 40-3 home loss to Syracuse. The Chippewas this season also have won at Purdue (38-17) and defeated Chattanooga (20-16) at home.
“Today we were very disappointed because we had chances to win, and we weren’t able to make plays. The way we bounced back from the first play of the game … they score. You could have seen the team get deflated, but I thought our defense responded. Our entire team did.
“We got it to 7-3 at half; 10-10, back-and-forth game, good football game, then they made more plays than we did, but, yes, there’s a lot to build off of. We’ve got a good team,” Enos added.
Central Michigan opens conference play next week at Toledo.
