NMU football takes it on the chin at No. 23 GVSU
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MARQUETTE -- The Northern Michigan University got a wakeup call on Saturday afternoon after two straight victories in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Nationally ranked Grand Valley State invited the Wildcats to their Arend D. Lubbers Stadium and ran off with a 61-14 victory.
NMU slipped to 2-8 overall and 2-4 in the GLIAC, while the No. 23 Lakers improved to 7-3 and 3-3. Northern dropped to sixth place in the league, a game behind GVSU and Saginaw Valley State, each of whom won Saturday to pull out of their fourth-place tie with the Wildcats.
NMU finishes its season in the Superior Dome against SVSU (5-5, 3-3 GLIAC) at 1 p.m. Saturday.
In Allendale, Northern scored the game first points on a Noah Dobert 2-yard touchdown run, but couldn't score again until early in the fourth quarter after the Lakers put up 47 points in a row.
With the Wildcats outgained 522-243, Dobert had the most productive day of any NMU player on offense, gaining 168 yards on the ground in 28 carries, 6.0 yards per rush. And he also had that rarest of TD passes out of an aptly-named "wildcat" formation for three yards to Lachlin Acker early in the fourth quarter.
Freshman quarterback Matt Stevens, after a trio of prolific passing performances, managed just 82 yards through the air after completing 7 of 18. He did avoid throwing an interception.
No. 1 receiver Wilson Ptacek again was the most productive for Stevens, catching four passes for 59 yards.
However, Northern made the only three turnovers of the game, all among six fumbles that have totaled 16 the past three weeks, though only five of them have been lost to the opposition.
For NMU's defense, Tyler Carnell led the way with 10 tackles, while Jax Hertel had among his six tackles, 1 1/2 for loss, three that were solo and also a forced fumble.
Nathan Pralle, last week's GLIAC Defensive Player of the Week, along with teammates Jace Miller and Ryan Schultz each had a half sack, while Miller, Schultz and Murphy Monreal each had a pass breakup.
The first time Northern touched the ball, it ran 10 plays and gained 81 yards before Dobert's short TD plunge to the right with 8:19 left in the first quarter. Sawyer McLinden's extra-point kick made it 7-0.
That lasted barely four minutes as GVSU took over and ran it five times even as QB Andrew Schuster threw a 10-yard scoring aerial to Kellen Reed. With Mathew Bacik's extra point, it was tied 7-7.
Northern took over after the ensuing kickoff, but Stevens was sacked and fumbled the ball away to the Lakers at the NMU 19. They needed just one play as Kellen caught another Schuster pass for a TD with 3:27 left in the opening period and the rout was on.
The Wildcats were tagged for a safety on a 20-yard loss on a strip sack of Stevens soon after for a 16-7 lead, and with a Zak Olejniczak 54-yard run a few plays after the free kick, it was 23-7 at the end of quarter No. 1.
GVSU tacked on another 17 points in the second quarter, including a Bacik 50-yard field goal as time ran out in the first half to make it 40-7 at intermission.
The Lakers scored just once in the third, on an Olejniczak 18-yard run, before Northern broke into double digits on the scoreboard when Dobert threw his short TD pass to Acker with 12:23 to go.
Two more Grand Valley TDs rounded out the scoring.
With Olejniczak completing a pair of halfback passes for three yards, the bulk of GVSU's air game was handled by Schuster, who completed 16 of 20 for 183 yards and five TDs.
Olejniczak led a group of three Lakers backs totaling more than 250 yards on the ground -- he had 91 yards in just five tries, Kellen Russell-Dixon had 88 yards on seven carries, and Paschal Anyanwu totaled 86 yards also in seven tries.
With 10 GVSU players catching passes, Reed was easily the most popular with six catches for 70 yards and three scores.
Grand Valley 61, NMU 14
Saturday at Allendale
Score by quarters:
Northern Michigan 7 0 0 7 -- 14
Grand Valley State 23 17 7 14 -- 61
First quarter
NMU -- Noah Dobert 2 run (Sawyer McLinden kick) 8:19
GVSU -- Kellen Reed 10 pass from Andrew Schuster (Mathew Bacik kick) 4:15
GVSU -- Reed 19 pass from Schuster (Bacik kick) 3:27
GVSU -- Safety, fumble recovered in end zone 1:39
GVSU -- Zak Olejniczak 54 run (Bacik kick) 0:42
Second quarter
GVSU -- Reed 12 pass from Schuster (Bacik kick) 9:52
GVSU -- Harrison Unger 6 pass from Schuster (Bacik kick) 2:00
GVSU -- Bacik 50 FG 0:00
Third quarter
GVSU -- Olejniczak 18 run (Bacik kick) 6:58
Fourth quarter
NMU -- Lachlin Acker 3 pass from Dobert (McLinden kick) 12:23
GVSU -- Kenyon Owens 20 pass from Schuster (Bacik kick) 10:36
GVSU -- Noah Oury 16 run (Joseph Celaj kick) 1:02
Game statistics
First downs -- NMU 19, Grand Valley 25
Total plays-net yards -- NMU 63-243, Grand Valley 54-522
Rushes-yards -- NMU 44-158 (Dobert 28-168, Noah Hofmann 5-23), Grand Valley 32-336 (Olejniczak 5-91, Kellen Russell-Dixon 7-88, Paschal Anyanwu 7-86)
Comp-Att-Int-Yards -- NMU 8-19-0-85 (Matt Stevens 7-18-0-82, Dobert 1-1-0-3), Grand Valley 18-22-0-186 (Schuster 16-20-0-183, Olejniczak 2-2-0-3)
Top receivers -- NMU, Wilson Ptacek 4-59, Jacob Halicek 1-12, Acker 2-9; Grand Valley, Reed 6-70, Unger 2-27
Punts-average -- NMU 4-37.5, Grand Valley 3-39.3
Fumbles-lost -- NMU 6-3, Grand Valley 1-0
Penalties-yards -- NMU 3-25, Grand Valley 6-65
Time of possession -- NMU 29:32, Grand Valley 30:28
Story contents based on a
Northern Michigan University's Noah Dobert, left, runs downfield to gain significant yardage during the Wildcats' homecoming game played against Davenport at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Sept. 19. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)