Miami (Ohio) makes history, Ohio clinches MAC East title

Miami (Ohio) won’t represent the East division in the Mid-American Conference title game, but the Redhawks did make history on Tuesday night.

After trailing Ball State 17-7 at halftime, Miami stormed back to knock off the Cardinals 21-20. The win was the sixth straight for Miami, making it the first team in FBS history to finish the regular season 6-6 after an 0-6 start.

The Redhawks even lost to FCS Eastern Illinois during their dreadful start, but reeled off six straight wins in MAC play to clinch bowl eligibility. Miami cut into Ball State’s lead on the first play of the third quarter when quarterback Gus Ragland found Rokeem Williams deep down the field. In a great individual effort, Williams spun away from a defender, broke a tackle and sprinted the rest of the way for a 74-yard touchdown, his second of the night.

Ball State hit a field goal later in the third to increase its lead to 20-14, but Miami went in front for good with 5:44 left in regulation when Ragland found Sam Shisso for a 27-yard score. From there, the Redhawks defense forced a stop, allowing the offense to run the clock out for the win.

Entering the night, Miami actually had a chance to clinch the East division title. Instead, Ohio held off Akron 9-3 to punch its ticket to the MAC title game in Detroit. An Ohio loss would have dropped its conference record to 5-3, allowing Miami to head to the title game with its 6-2 conference mark.

The Bobcats, who improved to 8-4 with the win, relied on freshman kicker Louie Zervos, who was perfect on the evening. Zervos hit all three of his attempts, connecting from 37 and 49 yards in the second quarter and 23 yards in the fourth.

After Zervos’ third field goal gave the Bobcats a 9-3 lead with 2:59 to play, the Akron offense moved deep into Ohio territory. A 19-yard run by Tyrell Goodman on fourth-and-one moved the Zips all the way to the Bobcats’ 24-yard line with 1:12 to go, but the Zips would not gain another yard. Goodman was sacked on the next play and then threw three straight incompletions to seal the win for Ohio. Akron dropped to 5-7 with the loss.

In the title game, which will be held at Ford Field in Detroit on Dec. 2, the Bobcats will face the winner of Friday’s Western Michigan vs. Toledo game in Kalamazoo. A win will clinch an undefeated regular season and the MAC West title for the Broncos. On the other side, Toledo is 9-2 (6-1 MAC) on the year. One of its two losses came at home against Ohio on Oct. 27.

In other Tuesday night #MACtion, Eastern Michigan scored a touchdown with 21 seconds left to shock Central Michigan, 26-21. The win is the seventh of the year for the Eagles, a total the program hadn’t reached since 1989. In fact, EMU had combined for seven wins over its previous four seasons.

At 7-5, EMU will play in a bowl game for the first time since 1987. With the loss, Central Michigan dropped to 6-6 on the year.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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