Quarterback Quinten Dormady threw for . . .
The victory and the Chippewas' performance was important on several fronts, not the least of which is that it came on opening night as CMU attempted to put a one-win 2018 season permanently in the rearview mirror in Jim McElwain's first game as the Chippewa coach.
The start of the game was delayed for nearly two hours by lightning, but that did little to slow a Chippewa team eager to return to the field.
"Really want to thank the people who stayed and got to see the Chips get a win," McElwain said. "That was something. The smiles in the locker room were long overdue. It's been a while for them to get a win and for our team, I'm just really proud of them.
"It's great to be here, I love these players, they're a bunch of great kids and they really want to do what's right and this was a step in the right direction."
It was a coming-out party for Dormady, a graduate transfer who made stops at Tennessee and then at Houston before landing in Mount Pleasant, along with wide receivers Tyrone Scott and Kalil Pimpleton, each of whom caught their first touchdown passes in a CMU uniform.
"It's a building block," Dormady said. "You practice for nine months a year for this moment, for the first game and it's special to get out there with the group that you worked with day in and day out, grind with all summer when no one's on campus (and) we're still here doing workouts. That's what's special, to get out there, show what we've worked all year for."
It was also a redemptive performance for CMU senior running back Jonathan Ward, whose 2018 production fell off dramatically from 2017, when he amassed nearly 1,500 combined yards in rushing and receiving. On Thursday, he finished with 211 yards from scrimmage – 158 on 22 carries; 53 on three receptions – and scored twice.
The Chippewas finished with 285 yards passing and 244 on the ground and gained 31 first downs.
"When you're truly balanced as an offense, that's hard for a defense," McElwain said. "if we can continue to learn to just take what they give us and pick our spots and hit some explosives … We had a lot of good performances and yet we're going to have a lot better performances."
Dormady found Scott twice for touchdown passes and then Ryan Tice added a 50-yard field goal for a 17-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
Albany cut its deficit to 17-7 with 5:27 to play in the half, and then missed a 39-yard field goal attempt. The Chippewas took over at their own 22-yard line, and Dormady engineered an eight-play, 78-yard drive that ended with a 4-yard TD toss to Pimpleton with just 2 seconds left in the half and upped CMU's lead to 24-7.
Ward scored on runs of 7 and 12 yards in the second half, sandwiching those scores around a 52-yard fumble return for a TD by Albany's Eli Mencer.
(Courtesy of CMU Athletics)