Michigan Sports

Edwards, Milivojevic account for 2 TDs each in MSU win over Eastern

EAST LANSING -- Cam Edwards rushed for 152 yards and two touchdowns and Alessio Milivojevic tossed two touchdown passes Saturday to help Michigan State to a 35-7 victory over Eastern Michigan.

The Spartans (2-0) broke away from a close game at the start of the third quarter with two quick touchdowns. Edwards ran for 2 yards on the first score and Milivojevic threw a 38-yard pass to Charles Taplin to put Michigan State up 28-7. Jazium Patterson also added 7-yard score midway through the fourth quarter.

Milivojevic completed 12 of 20 passes for 170 yards as the Spartans outgained the Eagles (1-2) 472-219. Michigan State totaled 258 yards rushing, the most since gaining 260 against Akron in 2022.

“I think the run game was great today,” Milivojevic said. “Makes it a lot easier on me to go out there and win a game when you got a guy like this running for I don’t know how many it was, but I know it was a lot.”

Despite the win, Michigan State coach Pat Fitzgerald said his team has plenty to work on.

“We’ve got to be better fundamentally in the second quarter,” Fitzgerald said. “We weren’t doing a great job block destruction. We weren’t fitting gaps right. We didn’t tackle well. We went under blocks. And then you know the play they scored on, we practiced.

“So just a lot of things we need to still really work hard on and improve, and we’re going to coach the living, you-know-what out of our guys.”

Michigan State took a 14-7 halftime lead on Milivojevic’s 18-yard touchdown pass to Fredrick Moore and Edwards’ 1-yard run.

The Spartans led 14-0 after Edwards scored with 8:45 left in the second quarter, but Eastern Michigan responded with a 78-yard drive. Noah Kim scored on a 4-yard run with 1:50 remaining. The Eagles (1-2) were able to move the ball throughout the half but struggled to convert drives.

Up next

Eastern Michigan: Travels to Wisconsin on Saturday.

Michigan State: Visits third-ranked Notre Dame on

Saturday.