Wildcats football hopes for more success at Davenport
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MARQUETTE -- If it's returning to the scene of a crime, it's a crime the Northern Michigan University football team was proud to pull off.
Last November, the Wildcats traveled to Grand Rapids to play Davenport in the second-to-last game of the season.
Three weeks earlier, NMU had broken its 28-game losing streak against a struggling Roosevelt team, 42-21, credit for much of that due to redshirt freshman running back Noah Dobert gaining 243 yards rushing even as fellow back Jahi Wood piled up 233 yards on the ground, too.
The following two weeks, though, Northern had reverted to its old form, giving up 56 and 70 points, respectively, in blowout losses to Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech and national champion-to-be Ferris State.
This is where they were when they came to face Davenport, a team that had already beaten them 35-16 at the Superior Dome nearly two months earlier.
But the Wildcats took an early lead, watched their hosts tie it up three times in regulation, and hold on through multiple extra periods before winning the longest game in NMU history, 47-45 in four overtimes.
Dobert gained 243 yards just like he did three weeks earlier, but his most important play didn't gain him a yard in the game statistics -- his 2-point plunge over the goal line in OT No. 4. Like on a touchdown, yards gained on these sort of 2-point attempts aren't counted in the regular stats.
All of this sets up the Wildcats returning to Grand Rapids at 2 p.m. Saturday to take on the Panthers for the second time in three weeks. Like last year, DU dominated their first meeting in Marquette, winning 42-7 on Sept. 19 in a game considered nonconference.
This time around, it counts in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. With Northern at 0-5 overall, the Wildcats are 0-1 in the GLIAC following last week's 42-0 setback to national No. 1 Ferris State.
Davenport is listed on the GLIAC website at www.gliac.org atop the conference even while tied with the mighty Ferris State team, both at 5-0 overall and 1-0 in league games, the Panthers winning at Saginaw Valley State 37-27 last weekend and currently garnering the No. 11 ranking in NCAA Division II.
This will be DU's homecoming game, according to a game preview provided by NMU Sports Information. The game is available to watch on FloSports or listen to on the radio at WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.
Fans can also follow @NMU_Football on Instagram and X for updates leading up to and during the game, or visit the Northern athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the football schedule for links to live video, live audio, live statistics and a preview.
"The last two weeks, for us both offensively and defensively, we've had to make some adjustments as coaches based on what we've seen," Wildcats head coach Matt Janus said in the NMU SI report. "The physicality in the run game in this conference will always be there, but with the physicality from Ferris and Davenport of the receivers and their blocking on the edge, and with their schemes getting the ball to the perimeter, we've had to change and adjust.
"From a physicality standpoint, our players continue to step up here and continue to adjust as we've played this schedule, and they're continuing to learn and grow."
Last Saturday, Ferris showed its abilities -- and its depth -- despite NMU halting the Bulldogs' opening 10-play drive with a fourth-down stop inside the Northern red zone.
Keeping the Wildcats offense from gaining a first down until just before halftime, Ferris repeatedly took the ball and combined a grind-it-out mentality with some big plays to build a 35-0 halftime lead, outgaining NMU 367-20 in yards in the first half and 20-1 in first downs.
By the end, the Bulldogs outgained Northern nearly 3-to-1 in yardage with four players throwing passes, eight catching them, and seven gaining between 20 and 45 yards rushing.
For the Wildcats, Dobert gained a solid 109 yards on the ground in 24 carries, a 4.5-yard per carry average, but with Duke Shovald only throwing for 63 yards by completing 10 of 21, Northern just couldn't keep up.
Northern defenders Jax Hertel and Carter Schmitt both made interceptions as NMU took care of its turnover bugaboo by only turning the ball over once.
Hertel and Dobert were each named to the D2Football.com Elite 100 watch list before the season began, both also being GLIAC First Team selections at the end of last season. Dobert also rewrote the NMU rushing part of its record book while gaining Second Team All-America status from the Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association.
This fall, Dobert, has 516 rushing yards, ranking second in the GLIAC at 103.2 yards per game.
Hertel currently ranks sixth in the conference with 30 tackles, including 19 solo, following up his No. 3 league total of 101 tackles a year ago, which included a GLIAC-leading 14 1/2 tackles for loss.
Davenport, only picked to finish fourth in the conference coaches preseason poll, has relied on running back Cephus Harris, who had a banner day against NMU two weeks go with 143 yards rushing.
He's actually had a number of banner days, rolling up 999 yards in five games to nearly double No. 2 Dobert's rushing total. Harris is averaging 199.8 yards per game and 8.3 yards per carry.
In their relatively short history, Davenport leads the series over Northern 9-3 even with the Wildcats' 4OT win a year ago.
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Northern Michigan University's Tanner Theuerkauf, left, a Menominee High School graduate, keeps the ball and gains a first down on a fake punt in the second quarter during the Wildcats' homecoming game played against Davenport at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Sept. 19. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)