MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Keith Wenning threw three touchdown passes and ran for a score on Saturday, and Ball State defeated Central Michigan 41-30.
Wenning completed 23 of 30 passes for 231 yards.
Ball State (5-3, 3-2) also got big rushing efforts from Jahwan Edwards (128 yards) and Barrington Scott (99 yards and a touchdown). Scott also caught a touchdown pass.
Ryan Radcliff completed 23 of 38 passes for 339 yards and three touchdowns for Central Michigan (2-5, 0-3). Zurlon Tipton rushed for 126 yards and a score. Cody Wilson caught seven passes for 111 yards and a touchdown.
Ball State controlled the clock for nearly 20 minutes in the second half.
BOWLING GREEN 24, MASSACHUSETTS 0: In Foxborough, Mass., Dwayne Woods returned an interception 48 yards for a touchdown, one of four interceptions for the Falcons (5-3, 3-1) in a win over the Minutemen (0-7, 0-4).
Woods’ pickoff came on Massachusetts’ second play after the Falcons had taken a 14-0 third-quarter lead on Matt Schilz’s 2-yard pass to Alex Bayer at the end of a 74-yard drive.
Trailing 21-0, the Minutemen replaced quarterback Mike Wegzyn with A.J. Doyle, but he was intercepted by BooBoo Gates, whose 38-yard return led to Tyler Tate’s 42-yard field goal and a 24-0 Bowling Green lead early in the fourth quarter.
Jude Adjei-Barimah had the other two interceptions for Bowling Green, whose last shutout was a 52-0 win over Western Michigan in 2004.
NORTHERN ILLINOIS 37, AKRON 7: In Akron, Ohio, Jordan Lynch threw two touchdowns and rushed for two more as the Huskies (7-1, 4-0) cruised past the Zips.
Northern Illinois, the MAC West co-leader, has won seven in a row after a one-point season-opening loss to Iowa and 16 of its last 17 games overall.
Lynch finished with 223 yards on 20-of-33 passing and threw touchdown passes of 9 and 4 yards. Lynch, who finished with 131 yards on the ground, has rushed for 100-plus yards in each of the Huskies’ last six games.
Akron (1-7, 0-4) struggled to move the ball, gaining just 194 yards on 65 plays from scrimmage.
EASTERN MICHIGAN 48, ARMY 38: In Ypsilanti, Mich., Tyler Benz threw a career-high five touchdown passes as the Eagles won their first game of the season. Benz finished with a career-high 369 yards on 19-for-31 passing.
Tailback Bronson Hill, a week removed from a 283-yard effort against Toledo, rushed for 185 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries as the Eagles (1-6) rolled up nearly 600 yards of offense.
Quarterback Trent Steelman had a career-high 212 yards and two touchdowns rushing for Army (1-6), which rushed for 412 yards, 27 more than its FBS-leading average.
PITTSBURGH 20, BUFFALO 6: In Buffalo, N.Y., Ray Graham and Rushel Shell each scored a touchdown rushing to help the Panthers (3-4) snap a two-game skid.
Graham had 74 yards rushing, while Shell had 35 yards rushing and a 41-yard catch as the Panthers’ run attack regained its stride. Pitt finished with 126 yards rushing, after combining for just 120 in its previous two games.
The Panthers, in their final season in the Big East Conference, avoided their first 2-5 start since 2001 and improved to 4-0 all time against Buffalo and 29-3 against Mid-American Conference opponents.
Devin Campbell had 104 yards rushing for Buffalo (1-6), which lost its fifth in a row.
KENT STATE 41, WESTERN MICHIGAN 24: In Kent, Ohio, the Golden Flashes (6-1, 4-0) scored 17 unanswered fourth-quarter points, including Luke Batton’s 83-yard fumble return for a touchdown, to rout the Broncos (3-5, 1-3).
Kent State, off to its best start since 1973, went ahead 31-24 on its first possession of the fourth quarter, getting a 33-yard Spencer Keith pass to Dri Archer and a 33-yard run by Trayion Durham before Archer scored on a 10-yard run.
Western Michigan’s Van Tubbergen completed 30 of 57 passes for 333 yards, including an 81-yard touchdown to Josh Schaffer.
