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Tough day at the office: NMU football falls to unbeaten Davenport, 42-7

NMU football falls to unbeaten Davenport, 42-7

By Steve Brownlee 7 min read

MARQUETTE -- Tough tasks just keep piling up for the Northern Michigan University football team.

A week after falling to an NCAA Division I team at St. Thomas, the Wildcats took on undefeated Davenport for homecoming and lost 42-7 on Saturday in the Superior Dome.

Then after having a bye this week, NMU's task gets even more difficult with defending Division II national champion Ferris State coming to Marquette at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, for both teams' conference opener.

Against Davenport, Northern hung with their guests into the second quarter, scoring its only touchdown on a 2-yard pass from quarterback Liam Oczkowski to Daniel Babcock on what was termed a tricky play early in the period.

That had to be apparent as Babcock is a 6-foot-4, 295-pound offensive lineman who is listed with uniform No. 64.

With Sawyer McLinden's extra-point kick, the Wildcats trailed only 14-7 with a little over 10 minutes remaining in the first half.

But the Panthers extended their lead back to two TDs just 90 seconds later, adding on three unanswered scores in the second half for the runaway.

Davenport improved to 4-0 and NMU slipped to 0-4 as neither school has started its season yet in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, despite this being a meeting of two league teams.

They'll meet again in three weeks in Grand Rapids, on Oct. 10, for what will count as their GLIAC game this season.

On Saturday, the Panthers held a decisive 374-210 advantage in total yards, both teams getting around twice as many yards on the ground as through the air. DU gained 247 yards rushing in 45 attempts, a 5.5-yard-per carry average, while NMU gained 136 yards in 39 tries, a 3.5-yard mean.

That shouldn't have been too much of surprise, as the top two running backs in the GLIAC were on display in the dome. Northern's Noah Dobert, No. 2 in the league at 111 yards per game, was a bit under that with 74 yards on 16 attempts, a 4.6-yard per carry average.

Davenport's Cephus Harris, topping all league backs averaging just a few yards short of 200 per game, didn't reach that but nearly doubled Dobert with 143 yards in 18 attempts, a 7.9-yard mean. He also scored twice, plus got another TD as a receiver, where he totaled 53 yards in three receptions.

Oczkowski and fellow Wildcats QB Duke Shovald combined to complete 15 of 21 passes -- actually 15 of 20 with "team" listed for one incomplete pass -- for 74 yards, a TD and an interception. Oczkowski was 9 of 12 for 47 yards and Shovald 6 of 8 for 27 yards and the pickoff. Oczkowski was also sacked seven times, more than NMU had been all season before Saturday, for a negative-35 yards that counted against the rushing total.

Menominee High School graduate Trevor Theuerkauf caught the most passes for NMU, four, for 21 yards, while Wilson Ptacek also had 21 yards in receptions on three catches, the same number of receptions as Isaac Olson, whose yardage totaled 20.

Jonathan Palmer threw the lion's share of DU's passes as it completed 8 of 13 for 127 yards, two TDs and a pick.

That pickoff by the Northern defense was made by Murphy Monreal, a GLIAC honorable mention a year ago, as he also had six tackles, five solo. Tyler Carnell led all Wildcat tacklers with eight, six of them solo and one a QB sack.

Teammate Damarcus Chappell had the other sack, while Nathan Pralle and LeeJohn Majerus each had a QB hurry as a total of 10 NMU defenders had a hand in a tackle for a loss.

One encouraging sign for Northern was not losing the turnover battle, each team throwing one interception with no fumbles lost on either side. Prior to Saturday, the Wildcats had turned the ball over eight times compared to getting just one takeaway from their opponents.

The Panthers, who only punted once in the first half, scored on their first two possessions while forcing Northern into a punt and then turning the ball over on downs at the DU 29-yard line.

After Harris ran in from 1 yard out to end an opening, 11-play drive, teammate Henry Cason caught a 43-yard scoring spiral from Palmer on the last play of the opening quarter. With a second PAT kick by Ian Jenkins, Davenport led 14-0 headed to the second period.

The Wildcats took the kickoff to open the quarter and got to work, churning out a nine-play, 75-yard drive for their lone TD.

NMU's new head coach Matt Janus tried a change of pace, having top receiver Ptacek run the ball right, which paid off with a 25-yard run to midfield to open the drive.

A few plays later, Theuerkauf kept the drive alive by converting a fake punt from just inside DU territory. With one incomplete pass thrown in, all the yardage came on the ground until the TD-scoring play.

One play after Dobert ran right for 34 yards to the Davenport 2, Oczkowski found his nearly 300-pound lineman for a 2-yard TD, which was wiped away on an illegal touching penalty.

But Janus' challenge got the penalty overturned and allowed the TD to stand, and with McLinden's extra point, the Wildcats were back with seven points with 10:04 to go in the first half.

However, that must have brought a sense of urgency to the Panthers, who took the next kickoff and marched 83 yards in just three Harris rushes, capped off by a 45-yard run to the left for a TD to return the score to 21-7.

While Northern forced a punt on DU's next possession, the Panthers still had a two-TD lead at intermission.

Then Monreal made his interception to end Davenport's opening drive to start the second half, with a punt ending its second.

But the Wildcats couldn't take advantage with any scoring offense, and the Panthers ground out another long, 11-play drive that culminated with Harris' scoring pass catch of 23 yards in the final minute of the third.

DU added two more TDs in the fourth, the first coming when B.J. Windham returned an interception of a Shovald pass 29 yards to paydirt. The other was a James Young 2-yard run in the final minute.

Davenport 42, NMU 7

Saturday at Superior Dome, Marquette

Score by quarters:

Davenport 14 7 7 14 -- 42

Northern Michigan 0 7 0 0 -- 7

First quarter

DAV -- Cephus Harris 1 run (Ian Jenkins kick) 5:45

DAV -- Henry Cason 42 pass from Jonathan Palmer (Jenkins kick) 0:00

Second quarter

NMU -- Daniel Babcock 2 pass from Liam Oczkowski (Sawyer McLinden kick) 10:04

DAV -- Harris 45 run (Jenkins kick) 8:34

Third quarter

DAV -- Harris 23 pass from Palmer (Jenkins kick) 0:31

Fourth quarter

DAV -- B.J. Windham 29 interception return (Jenkins kick) 9:54

DAV -- James Young 2 run (Jenkins kick) 0:52

Game statistics

First downs -- Davenport 19, NMU 13

Total plays-net yards -- Davenport 58-374, NMU 60-210

Rushes-yards -- Davenport 45-247 (Harris 18-143, Young 6-40), NMU 39-136 (Noah Dobert 16-74, Wilson Ptacek 3-49)

Comp-Att-Int-Yards -- Davenport 8-13-1-127 (Palmer 7-11-1-129, Mac VandenHout 0-1-0-0, Young 1-1-0-minus-2), NMU 15-21-1 (Oczkowski 9-12-0-47, Duke Shovald 6-8-1-27, "team" 0-1-0-0)

Top receivers -- Davenport, Harris 3-53, Cason 2-45; NMU, Trevor Theuerkauf 4-21, Ptacek 3-21, Isaac Olson 3-20

Punts-average -- Davenport 3-41.0, NMU 5-31.4

Fumbles-lost -- Davenport 2-0, NMU 1-0

Penalties-yards -- Davenport 6-45, NMU 3-15

Time of possession -- Davenport 29:53, NMU 30:07

Story contents based on a Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the game. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee's email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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