FINAL SCORE: Eastern Michigan 36, St. Francis 0
FINAL SCORE: Eastern Michigan 36, St. Francis 0
EMU captures a shutout to go 2-0 at home this season.
It wasn’t the most convincing 36-point blowout, but Eastern Michigan technically recorded one Saturday afternoon to close out non-conference play. EMU punted the ball away twice and two turnovers on downs against the now 1-3 St. Francis Red Flash football team.
EMU is now 3-1 to close out the first third of its football season and will now have the task of attacking its conference schedule beginning next week with a trip to Kent State.
Here’s how EMU captured its 36-0 shutout at home:
SCORING PLAYS
First Quarter
1Q, 4:33; 98-YARD FUMBLE RETURN BY DAVID CARTER JR. 98. EMU 7, SAINT FRANCIS 0.
SFU quarterback Adrian Mejei ran around and made some plays out there early on. Roaming around left to right to keep plays alive, got a first-down throw down the right sideline. Then he took a late hit from EMU defensive end Trey Laing that gave his team an automatic first down in EMU territory. Then an 11-yard scramble moved his team to the red zone. One more first down later, SFU found itself knocking on the door of the end zone until it was met with its own re-occuring issues: fumbles. SFU fumbled the snap on 2nd and goal from the 2-yard line, and David Carter Jr. got the loose ball and ran it the length of the field for the first score of the game.
1Q, 0:44; 40-YARD FIELD GOAL BY JESUS GOMEZ. EMU 10, SAINT FRANCIS 0
Points on the board for EMU, but not a lot of production up to that point. Thanks to a 15-yard penalty on the end of Saint Francis’ punt, EMU started the drive on its own 47-yard line, but only drove the ball 31 yards over seven plays. Cole Snyder’s over-the-middle pass on 3rd & 5 was broken up to send Jesus Gomez out for his first field goal of the day.
Second Quarter
2Q, 6:46; 49-YARD FIELD GOAL BY JESUS GOMEZ. EMU 13, SAINT FRANCIS 0.
Ugly, ugly drive for the Eagles, especially on the tail-end. As soon as EMU got into the red zone, a holding penalty by Max Reese and a sack against Snyder sent the Eagles back 18 yards. The offense didn’t look like it was on the same page with its pass play down the right sideline for Terry Lockett, or on the following screen pass. Jesus Gomez’s first field goal try actually sailed right of the goal posts, but a roughing the kicker penalty against the Red Flash gave him another shot. On the re-try, his 49-yard kick was good, and slightly extended his team’s first-half lead.
Third Quarter
3Q, 9:12; 1-YARD RUN BY DELBERT MIMMS III. EMU 19, SAINT FRANCIS 0.
On EMU’s longest drive to this point in the game, the Eagles needed just six plays to score a touchdown on its 44-yard drive after it punted on its first drive of the second half. Delbert Mimms III was fed the ball on the last three plays to finally come way with a 1-yard score. Leading up to Mimms’ score, Oran Singleton had a 16-yard catch and redshirt-freshman Deion Brown added an 18-yard run. Gomez missed the PAT kick, his first miss of the year.
3Q, 7:38; KENDRIC NOWLING RECOVERS BLOCKED PUNT. EMU 26, SAINT FRANCIS 0.
Joey Mattord, a second-year walk-on for the team, came through in the third quarter. He got his blood pumping a little bit as he opened the second half with an 18-yard kick return. Later as St. Francis set up to punt away in the middle of the third quarter, Mattord made an even louder special teams play as he broke through SFU’s blocking to block the punt in Eastern’s end zone, and the ball was instantly recovered by Kendric Nowling. That was Mattord’s first career punt block, but Nowling’s second time scoring for EMU. Last year against Kent State, Nowling caught the game-opening onside kick attempt and ran it back for the program’s fastest-ever touchdown score.
3Q, 6:03; 37-YARD FIELD GOAL BY JESUS GOMEZ. EMU 29, SAINT FRANCIS 0.
Saint Francis continually had problems with the snap and that carried over from offense to special teams. Punting away in the third quarter, a botched snap scrapped SFU’s plans to punt, and SFU got downed behind the line of scrimmage for EMU to start with the ball in the red zone. EMU ran it for no gain on first down, had its passes on second and third downs broken up, then let Gomez handle his third 3-pointer of the afternoon.
Fourth Quarter
4Q, 11:20; 89-YARD CATCH BY ZYELL GRIFFIN FROM JEREMIAH SALEM. EMU 36, SAINT FRANCIS 0.
First career pass for former walk-on QB Jeremiah Salem is a memorable one. An over-the-middle throw to Zyell Griffin, a first-year transfer from UNLV, was already going to be good enough for a first down, but Griffin got more. Way more. Griffin outraced the St. Francis defense and escaped being pushed out of bounds towards the end of his 89-yard catch and run, and got into the end zone for his first time as an Eagle.
KEY PLAYS, MOMENTS, TURNOVERS
DAVID CARTER’S FUMBLE
If it weren’t for fifth-year safety David Carter Jr., EMU wouldn’t have scored a touchdown in the first half. Carter’s 98-yard score put EMU on the board first, but it was also the first scoop-and-score for the program since 2020 when Mark Lee had a 61-yard score against Northern Illinois.
EMU LOSES CHALLENGE IN FIRST HALF
Eastern Michigan thought it got the ball out on a Saint Francis fumble after Dylan Shelton and Peyton Price had brought down Mejia with a sack late in the second quarter. EMU challenged the non-turnover and the officials got together to review their original call on the field, so EMU was without a red flag fo the rest of the way.
SFU DOINKS FIELD GOAL TRY TO END FIRST HALF
Scary moment for EMU as the team damn-near gift-wrapped a touchdown drive the the Red Flash, though St. Francis just didn’t execute. A turnover on downs is how EMU ended its final offensive drive of the first half, but an intentional grounding penalty is how SFU got a five-yard bump at midfield before the offense got on the field. On Saint Francis’ drive, EMU contributed 10 yards with a defensive pass interference by Daiquan White, then another 9 yards with an unnecessary roughness call against Luke Murphy. SFU got to EMU’s 12-yard line with the help from the home side, then set up to kick a field goal with four seconds remaining in the half. Mac Plummer’s kick doinked off the right upright, and sent the Red Flash to the locker room with zero points at the halftime break.
ALI ABDUL-BARR MAEKS FIRST INTERCEPTION
An unusual-looking turnover in favor of the Eagles defense in the final minutes of the game. Mejia’s very short pass to one of his teammates bounced off the player’s chest and the ball landed right into Ali Abdul-Barr’s hands.
PLAYER AVAILABILITY NOTES
Senior Zach Mowchan will miss the rest of the 2024 season as announced in EMU’s pregame player availability report.
Blake Bustard and Dramarian McNulty both returned from inactive duty to make starts at left tackle and cornerback, but some new faces hit the unavailable sheet Saturday. Of the starters, center Broderick Roman was ruled out vs. St. Francis, and true freshman cornerback Jordan Toney missed Saturday’s action as well.
OUT
DB #1 Joshua Scott
WR #1 J.B. Mitchell III
DB #6 Bryce Llewellyn
WR #9 Porter Rooks
LB #11 Zach Mowchan (season)
DB #12 Jaheim Jenkins
DB #13 Jason Marshall (season)
DB #15 Jordan Toney
RB #22 J.T. Bronaugh (season)
RB #28 Dontae McMillan
LB #36 Colin Main
K #37 Kenyon Bowyer
DB #39 Barry Manning
LB #40 Bryce Eliuk (season)
OL #50 Owen Snively (season)
OL #60 Thomas Dickinson (season)
OL #67 Broderick Roman
OL #68 Nicholas Sutherby
QUESTIONABLE
WR #8 Markus Allen
RB #34 Delbert Mimms III (played)
LB #55 James Djonkam
TE #83 Jere Getzinger
NEXT GAME
EMU is now 3-1 overall with a 2-0 home record, but now EMU has to turn the page and look to next week. The Eagles will travel to Kent State next week for each side’s first league game at 3:30 p.m. Since 2018, EMU holds a 3-2 record over the Golden Flashes.
