Central Michigan rallies late but falls 21-14 to Western Michigan, and the Chippewas host Miami (Ohio) Saturday in Mount Pleasant

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Central Michigan scored twice in the fourth quarter and got the ball back with a chance to tie, but Western Michigan held on for a 21-14 win Saturday at Kelly/Shorts Stadium and took the Victory Cannon back to Kalamazoo.

The Chippewas fell to 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the Mid-American Conference. They return home Saturday, Oct. 24, to face Miami (Ohio) at 1 p.m. on Senior Day, with the game streaming on ESPN+, according to CMU’s schedule. Miami is 4-3 and 2-1 in the conference.

Western (5-2, 3-0), the defending MAC champion, controlled most of the afternoon with its running game in front of a crowd of 25,352, CMU reported. Running back Jalen Buckley carried 24 times for 150 yards and scored on runs of 9 and 7 yards, and quarterback Broc Lowry threw a fourth-down touchdown pass to Nathan Levicki before halftime. The Broncos’ second-half opening drive took 7 minutes, 39 seconds and made it 21-0, according to Western Michigan’s game summary.

Central finally found the end zone in the fourth quarter. Angel Flores threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Allen with 13:52 left, then Jadyn Glasser ran in from 2 yards out with 44 seconds to go. CMU’s Brett McCalla recovered the onside kick at the Western 48.

A holding penalty set back the final drive, and on the last play Western safety Daeh McCullough intercepted Glasser in the end zone, the Broncos said.

Flores ran 31 times for 117 yards and threw for 162 before leaving late in the game with an injury, CMU said. The school did not describe the injury. Central outgained Western 337 yards to 272, the box score shows, but converted 4 of 15 third downs and 3 of 7 fourth downs.

Second-year coach Matt Drinkall said he could not recall being prouder of how hard a team fought in 25 years of coaching. “No one out-emotions the other team,” he said after the game. “You have to out-execute the other team, and that’s the reality of it.”

Western plays at Toledo at noon Saturday.

Sources:
Central Michigan University Athletics, “Chippewas Rally, But Fall Short in Battle for the Victory Cannon With Western Michigan 21-14,” Oct. 17, 2026, https://cmuchippewas.com/news/2026/10/17/football-chippewas-rally-but-fall-short-in-battle-for-the-victory-cannon-with-western-michigan
Western Michigan University Athletics, “Broncos Keep Victory Cannon After 21-14 Road Win at Central Michigan” (includes team statistics and scoring summary), Oct. 17, 2026, https://wmubroncos.com/news/2026/10/17/football-broncos-keep-victory-cannon-after-21-14-road-win-at-central-michigan.aspx
Central Michigan University Athletics, “2026 Football Schedule,” https://cmuchippewas.com/sports/football/schedule/2026
Photo: PureMichiganChip, “KellyShorts Night.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-adjusted; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KellyShorts_Night.jpg

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Tags: Mount Pleasant · Central Michigan Chippewas · Western Michigan Broncos · Victory Cannon · College Football · MAC