Bailey lifts EMU to first bowl in 29 years

By Ramon Scott
Updated: November 25, 2016

2016 EAST COUNTY FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE FOOTBALL STANDOUTS

EastCountySports.com staff report

YPSILANTI, Mich. – Former Grossmont College wide receiver SERGIO BAILEY may have scored the biggest touchdown in Eastern Michigan University history Tuesday night.

Bailey makes a reception earlier in the contest Tuesday night.

Bailey, a junior out of Olympian High, but from La Mesa, made a nearly impossible fourth-and-6 reception in the front left corner of the end zone against the tightest man-to-man coverage possible with :37 left lifting the Eagles to a 26-21 home victory over in-state rival Central Michigan at Rynearson Stadium, lifting EMU to its first bowl game in 29 yards.

Eastern Michigan finished its most successful regular season in decades by rallying in the closing seconds.

Both schools entered 6-5 and eligible for a bowl — something not uncommon for the Chippewas — but uncharted territory for Eastern, which hasn’t been to a bowl game since 1987.

Bailey finished with 6 catches for 104 yards in the contest and completed the regular season with 55 catches and 799 yards with six touchdowns, but none bigger than the play that gave the Eagles their seventh win of the season, making them bowl eligible and sending them back to a postseason game for the first time in nearly three decades.