MU, which fell to 4-7 overall and 3-4 in the Mid-American Conference East Division, closes the season at home against Ball State on Friday at 1 p.m.
“We always want to go out and play for each other,” said RedHawks receiver Nick Harwell, who caught 11 balls for 215 yards and a touchdown. “No matter if we have a chance to go to the MAC championship or a bowl game or not playing for anything. We want to go out and play hard for each other and try to finish strong.”
Miami trailed 21-7 at halftime and did manage to close the gap to 21-16 early in the fourth quarter, but CMU countered with a Saylor Lavallii touchdown run with 10:28 left, then sacked Zac Dysert in the end zone for a safety with 1:05 on the clock.
Central remained in contention to become bowl eligible with the Senior Day triumph, improving to 5-6 overall and 3-4 in the MAC West.
“I think it was missed opportunities,” RedHawks coach Don Treadwell said. “Every loss is a tough loss. You more or less talk about the things we’re going to continue to improve on and stay locked in and stay the course, and that’s really what the young men have done.”
Dysert completed 26 of 43 passes for 343 yards and a touchdown, a 68-yard bomb to Harwell in the first period. But the Miami signal-caller was also sacked five times, twice by Caesar Rodriguez.
“You’ve got to give them credit — they outplayed us today,” Dysert said. “They made plays when they needed to and we didn’t. It’s tough to play away, but we still had a lot of things ahead of us that we could’ve accomplished. It’s tough. It’s frustrating.”
The Chippewas’ Zurlon Tipton cracked the 100-yard mark for the fifth straight game, totaling 113 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries. Lavallii added 68 yards on eight rushes.
Ryan Radcliff added a 202-yard effort on 13-of-23 passing. He hit Connor Odykirk for a score.
“I thought we got some outstanding play from a lot of different players today and a lot of them were seniors, so we are very happy about that,” CMU coach Dan Enos said. “I thought our defense played well, very opportunistic, and got some turnovers against a very good team.”
Jahleel Addae had an interception and Jabari Dean recovered a fumble for Central. Wes Williams picked off a pass for Miami, which suffered its fifth loss in the last six games.
Kaleb Patterson kicked a 39-yard field goal for the RedHawks.
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