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In the win column: NMU football scores 27-10 Superior Dome win over Roosevelt

NMU football scores 27-10 Superior Dome win over Roosevelt

MARQUETTE -- And they're off the schneid!

The Northern Michigan University football team needed eight games, but these Wildcats now have a victory after a 27-10 win over Roosevelt on Saturday afternoon at the Superior Dome in Marquette.

Though it seemingly has been a struggle this season, the Wildcats have a reasonably modest but still competitive 1-3 record in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference while being 1-7 overall.

They're tied for fifth place in the eight-team conference, along with a pair of Lakers teams -- the one they defeated Saturday and also Grand Valley State. The difference, however, is those two teams are each 5-3 overall.

But it had to be a satisfying win for first-year head coach Matt Janus, defeating a team with a winning record that included a triumph over an NCAA Division I FCS school, Chicago State.

Roosevelt had struggled in the GLIAC its first two seasons, perennially vying with NMU for the bottom of the league, but this year had scored at least 21 points in every game and was actually averaging better than 35 points a game entering Marquette.

But the Northern defense shut out the Lakers over the final three quarters, a good portion of the credit going to winning the turnover battle even as the offense fumbled the ball away twice among five total bobbles.

That's because the Wildcats defense intercepted RU quarterback Tony Chahino three times while limiting him to less than a 50% completion rate as he was just 13 of 29 for 149 yards -- and no touchdowns.

NMU's interceptions were made by Luc Damiani, with a return of 25 yards, by Carter Schmitt, with a return of 19 yards, and by Kayden Meverden, with a return of three yards.

Jax Hertel, with a team-leading five solo tackles, and Tyler Carnell led the Northern defense with seven tackles overall, while Damarcus Chappell had a QB sack and Murphy Monreal, Jace Miller and Simonique Carter Jr. each had a pass breakup.

Meanwhile, the Northern offense chugged along gaining 450 yards after gaining more than 500 the previous week at Michigan Tech.

Freshman QB Matt Stevens again led NMU's attack, completing 21 of 31 passes for 259 yards, two TDs and no pickoffs, while he added 28 yards rushing.

All-American sophomore back Noah Dobert ran for 131 yards in 32 attempts, a 4.1-yard-per-carry average.

Catching the ball, Wilson Ptacek made eight receptions for 109 yards, while Menominee product Trevor Theuerkauf had six snags for 46 yards and Kyle McGowan two receptions for 54 yards.

The Wildcats posted several other impressive statistics, doubling up the Lakers in first downs, 26-13, and doing the same in time of possession, actually slightly better than that, 40:07 to 19:53.

Much of that can be attributed to Northern running 84 offensive plays to just 52 for the Lakers, who were limited to 255 total yards.

NMU also was 9 of 16 on third-down conversions and even 2 of 3 on fourth-down tries. Roosevelt was just 3 of 11 on third down and 1 of 3 on fourth down.

Despite all this good feeling in the stats column, the Wildcats had to come from behind twice, not taking the lead for good until there were just over five minutes left in the third quarter.

Roosevelt, which gained more than half its yards in the first quarter, took the opening kickoff and marched 64 yards in 13 plays for a short 25-yard field goal by Sean Sample and a 3-0 lead.

NMU answered with a touchdown on the next possession, the Wildcats marching 75 yards in 11 plays, the big play a 39-yard Stevens pass to McGowan that brought the ball to the Roosevelt 7-yard line.

They needed four more plays and a timeout to score as Dobert rushed right for a 2-yard TD on 4th-and-goal. While the extra-point failed, Northern still led 6-3 with 4:19 left in the opening quarter.

In what was starting to look like a shootout, the Lakers scored their lone TD on the ensuing possession. It was another grind-it-out, seven-play drive, featuring a 30-yard, Chahino-to-Michael Prokos pass that brought the ball to the NMU 18.

Three plays later, Carl Bew ran up the middle 11 yards for the go-ahead score. With a Sean Sample extra point, Roosevelt led 10-6 with 1:35 to go in the opening period.

The teams then settled into a bit of defensive struggle, at least as far as the scoreboard was concerned, for the rest of the first half.

The Wildcats did move the ball without producing points in second quarter, NMU taking the next kickoff and eating up more than nine minutes by running 16 plays. But the drive stalled when Stevens threw back-to-back incomplete passes on third and fourth down at the Lakers' 12.

After a fairly quick Roosevelt possession, they punted the ball 51 yards and backed up Northern more with a penalty on the return.

NMU started at its own 10 and Stevens on the first play threw a 42-yard strike to Ptacek to get it near midfield. But three plays later, Stevens coughed up the ball on a QB sack by Roosevelt's CJ Ameachi.

Neither team did much with the ball for the rest of the first half, leaving the Wildcats still down by four points at intermission.

Northern took the second-half kickoff and mounted another long drive, moving the ball 74 yards to the Roosevelt 1 before Stevens again lost a fumble on a keeper through the middle. Ameachi again forced the turnover, this time near the goal line.

But the Wildcats' defense came to the rescue, this time doing more than just shutting down the Roosevelt offense.

With the Lakers facing 3rd-and-9 from its own 4 a few plays after getting the ball back, Northern's Miller broke up a Chahino pass with a deflection that was snagged out of the air by his teammate Meverden.

That gave the ball back to the NMU offense at the Roosevelt 3, and this time, Dobert ran the ball two yards and Noah Hofmann followed it up with a 1-yard TD run off to the right.

With Nicholas Gruesen's PAT kick, Northern retook the lead, 13-10.

The Wildcats' defense again responded with a three-and-out by Roosevelt.

Northern then took over to put together a 76-yard drive spanning the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarters before Stevens threw his first TD pass, a 4-yarder to Jake Heemstra. Gruesen's extra point made it 20-10 with 13:35 left.

With Roosevelt looking like it was in desperation catchup mode, NMU's Damiani and Schmitt ended the Lakers' next two possessions with their interceptions, each setting up the Northern offense in RU territory.

The first resulted in the Wildcats' final score, a 24-yard TD strike to Isaac Olson with 10:21 left that gave NMU its final 17-point lead.

Schmitt's pickoff came with 8:08 left, and on Roosevelt's final possession, the Lakers turned it over on downs at the Roosevelt 41. Northern was then able to run out the final 5 1/2 minutes following nine runs and one incomplete pass that was negated by a pass interference penalty on the Lakers.

NMU will look to make it two wins in a row with a visit to last-place Wayne State at noon Saturday. The Warriors are 0-8 and 0-4 in the GLIAC after their 49-0 loss at Davenport on Saturday.

NMU 27, Roosevelt 10

Saturday at Superior Dome

Score by quarters:

Roosevelt 10 0 0 0 -- 10

Northern Michigan 6 0 7 14 -- 27

First quarter

RSV -- Sean Sample 25 FG 9:25

NMU -- Noah Dobert 2 run (kick failed) 4:19

RSV -- Carl Bew 11 run (Sample kick) 1:35

Second quarter

No scoring

Third quarter

NMU -- Noah Hofmann 1 run (Nicholas Gruesen kick) 5:06

Fourth quarter

NMU -- Jake Heemstra 4 pass from Matt Stevens (Gruesen kick) 13:35

NMU -- Isaac Olson 24 pass from Stevens (Gruesen kick) 10:21

Game statistics

First downs -- Roosevelt 13, NMU 26

Total plays-net yards -- Roosevelt 52-255, NMU 84-450

Rushes-yards -- Roosevelt 23-106 (Jaden Bossie 10-49, Bew 8-40), NMU 53-191 (Noah Dobert 32-131, Stevens 11-28, Hofmann 7-20)

Comp-Att-Int-Yards -- Roosevelt, Tony Chahino 13-29-3-149; NMU, Stevens 21-31-0-259

Top receivers -- Roosevelt, Michael Prokos 5-8, DJ Simmons Jr. 2-27, Bossie 3-11; NMU, Wilson Ptacek 8-109, Kyle McGowan 2-54, Trevor Theuerkauf 6-46, Dobert 2-17, Olson 1-24

Punts-average -- Roosevelt 3-46.0, NMU 2-36.5

Fumbles-lost -- Roosevelt 1-0, NMU 5-2

Penalties-yards -- Roosevelt 5-33, NMU 5-35

Time of possession -- Roosevelt 19:52, NMU 40:06

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.