Justice Haynes rushed for 152 yards and two touchdowns to lead No. 25 Michigan to a solid 31-20 victory over rival Michigan State in Big Ten play on Saturday night at East Lansing, Mich.
Jordan Marshall added 110 rushing yards, including a 56-yard scoring scamper, as the Wolverines (6-2, 4-1 Big Ten) won their second straight contest.
Quarterback Bryce Underwood rushed for a touchdown and Jimmy Rolder had 10 tackles, one fumble recovery and one sack for Michigan, which stopped two Spartans’ fourth-down opportunities in the fourth quarter.
Aidan Chiles completed 14 of 28 passes for 130 yards for Michigan State (3-5, 0-5), which lost its fifth consecutive game. Brandon Tullis rushed for a touchdown and Makhi Frazier had 109 yards on the ground.
Underwood completed 8 of 17 passes for just 86 yards and Derrick Moore had two sacks for the Wolverines.
Haynes carried the ball 26 times while topping 100 yards rushing for the sixth time this season. He missed last week’s victory over Washington with an abdominal injury. Marshall rushed for more than 100 yards for the second straight week.
Michigan led 10-7 at halftime before opening up a 17-point lead on two scoring runs by Haynes in the third quarter.
Haynes’ 5-yard touchdown run on the first possession of the second half pushed the Wolverines’ lead to 10. He later scored from the 14-yard line to make it 24-7 with 3:08 remaining in the third quarter.
The Spartans answered early in the fourth quarter. Chiles appeared to throw a 25-yard scoring pass to Nick Marsh but a replay review displayed Marsh stepped out of bounds inside the 1. Tullis then scored on the next play to pull Michigan State within 24-13 with 12:34 left before the ensuing two-point conversion throw was broken up by Rolder.
The Spartans reached the Michigan 27 on their next possession but Chiles’ fourth-and-3 pass to Jack Velling was incomplete with 8:01 remaining.
Two-plus minutes later, David Santiago stripped Haynes of the ball and recovered it at the Michigan State 46 with 5:51 left.
On fourth-and-1, Chiles attempted to hurry the quarterback sneak before the Wolverines were ready. Rolder shot through the gap to stop Chiles’ momentum and multiple teammates finished off the tackle for no gain with 4:37 remaining.
Marshall then broke loose through a big hole at the line of scrimmage on his long TD run with 2:48 left to push the lead to 31-13.
Michigan State backup Alessio Milivojevic tossed a 21-yard touchdown pass to Michael Masunas with seven seconds remaining.
Michigan scored the game’s first 10 points in the first quarter on a 21-yard field goal by Dominic Zvada and Underwood’s 13-yard run.
The Spartans answered with Chiles’ 1-yard run with 8:24 left in the second quarter.
–Field Level Media
