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	The Ypsilanti Courier A Heritage Newspaper Weekly Publication

Milestone set in EMU home opener

PUBLISHED: September 4, 2008

I am not used to seeing a college football team do the type of damage to another team like what I saw last Thursday night at Eastern Michigan University. I watched the Eagles crush the Indiana State 52-0. It was the first time I had attended a college football game since I was a senior at Wayne State University.

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As I can recall, the only reason I went to that game was to cover it for the school paper.

I had a change in schedule for one of my high school football games so I decided to load up the family vehicle and headed over to Rynearson Stadium for the first game of the EMU season.

It wasn't long into the first quarter that the Eagles scored and the excitement started to build. As soon as EMU blasted off the cannon for the score. I have to admit everyone in my family was a little shocked when the cannon blasted off and the giant puff of smoke went into the air. The locals seemed to have total control of the ball game as the scored again in the first quarter to make it 14-0.

I kept thinking to myself how much fun it must be for these players to be competing at the next level and still playing after high school. I have been watching at least 10 high school games live a year for the past eight years and forgotten what it was like for college students.

Let me tell you it didn't look too exciting for the Indiana State. In fact, they looked like a team in desperate need of something (maybe a win). Come to find out that have went winless in their last 15 games and I didn't find that too hard to believe.

Back to the Eagle Nation. They looked good. I have to say I was impressed with how they played on offense, I saw several key interceptions when Indiana State University was trying to go deep with the pass and I saw some great special teams play including a nice block of a field goal to keep the score 28-0 going into the lockers at the half.

In the second half, EMU dominated once again scoring two more times to up the lead to 28-0. It was exciting to see the local team dominating at home. This is something I didn't get to watch too much at WSU when I was a college student. The football team had fewer scholarships than the girls' basketball team. The president of the university was not a big fan of football or sports for that matter.

I want to say it was fun to watch Terrance Blevins carry the ball for the Eagles. Official records have him running for a career high 176 yards as well as the two touchdowns he scored. Good job Blevins you have got some skills running the ball. His touchdown runs were from four and 61-yards and I can tell you he was hardly touched (if at all) on the long touchdown run.

Eastern finished the game with 637 yards of total offense and the Sycamores only managed 132 yards of total offense minus their starting quarterback, Charles Dowdell, who was serving a one game suspension.

One team's loss is another team's gain and EMU quarterback Andy Schmitt had a 14-yard TD to former Belleville High School's Tyler Jones and they both played a good game. True freshman and Ypsilanti High graduate Marvon Sanders had two rushes for 53 yards including one that went 51 yards. I knew I would get to see him again after high school but it was exciting to watch him do so well. In the first game of the season last year I watched him play for Ypsi at EMU.

The halftime show was pretty exciting as well. I was impressed with the college band. EMU's band has a lot of members and boy did they have a good time out on the field performing. I really liked the atmosphere and I wouldn't mind going back for another game in the future.

The final scoring drive of the season was a touchdown run from third-string quarterback Jason Williams from 19 yards out with just over two minutes remaining in the game.

Some other news and notes from the game this was the first shutout for EMU since 1997 when they defeated Akron 45-0 and the first time since 2004 that they started the season 1-0. Let's see how they do next week at Michigan State University when they battle the Spartans at noon.

Dave Merchant is a staff writer for the Ypsilanti Courier and View Newspapers and can be reached at 732-697-8255 or Dmerchant@heritage.com.