By RICK SWANSON
Dowagiac Daily News

EAST LANSING – Host Michigan State took out last week’s upset at the hand of Minnesota out on visiting Western Michigan on Saturday afternoon.

Michigan State (4-5) had its way with the Broncos on both offense and defense in a 49-14 rout at Spartan Stadium on a perfect fall afternoon.

On the third play of the game, the Spartans opened up their scoring spree with a 71-yard run by Ashton Leggett.

The extra point conversion by Brett Swenson tied the MSU all-time record of 148 extra point completions.  By the end of the game, his record stood at 152.

Western Michigan struggled to get its offense started in the first half.

On their first series of downs, MSU middle linebacker Greg Jones forced a fumble during a seven-yard sack, turning the ball over to the Spartans.  The fumble led the Spartans to their second score of the game at 7:28 of the first quarter.

It was the only turnover of the game.

Again, Western Michigan could not move the ball either on the ground or in the air.  The MSU defense held Western to 23 negative yards for the first half.

Heading into the locker room, Bronco’s quarterback Tim Hiller had 13 incomplete passes with a total of only 44 yards to his credit.

With 49 seconds to go in the first quarter, MSU added to its lead by a 13-yard touchdown pass to tight end Garrett Celek, bringing the score to 21-0.  The Spartans would score two more touchdowns in the half.  Running back Keshawn Martin ran the ball 48 yards at 5:35 left to go in the second quarter.

Leggett would close out the first half with the fifth Spartan touchdown on a one-yard run.
The second half showed promise for the Broncos when Brandon West ran 80 yards on the first down of the half for their first touchdown of the day.

Their only other score was early in the fourth quarter. It took 11 downs to go 80 yards capped off with a 12 yard touchdown pass to Blake Hammond.

The success was short-lived as MSU struck back on the next series when Leggett ran the ball 13 yards for his fourth touchdown of the day.

Dion Sims closed out the scoring of the day with a seven-yard touchdown run with 5:59 left in the fourth quarter, bringing the score to 49-14.

Western Michigan 0 0 7 7 – 14
Michigan State 21 14 0 14 – 49
MSU – Leggett, Ashton 71 run (Swenson, Brett kick)
MSU – Leggett 2 run (Swenson kick)
MSU – Celek, Garrett 13 pass from Cousins, Kirk (Swenson kick)
MSU – Martin, Keshawn 48 pass from Cousins (Swenson kick)
MSU – Leggett 1 run (Swenson kick)
WMU – West, Brandon 80 run (Potter,John kick)
WMU – Hammon, Blake 12 pass from Hiller, Tim (Potter kick)
MSU – Leggett 13 run (Swenson kick)
MSU – Sims, Dion 7 pass from Nichol, Keith (Swenson kick)