This Saturday, Michigan Tech faced off against Davenport University, a university ranked two places higher than Tech. Before the game, Tech stood at 14th place with Davenport at 12th. Michigan Tech’s standing was 7-2; however, Tech has managed to win every home game, and this past Saturday the trend was extended, bringing Tech to 8-2.
MTU’s head football coach Dan Mettlach predicted it would be a close game, stating, “Whoever’s going to execute best on Saturday is going to win the football game and that’s essentially what it comes down to.” Instead, however, the Huskies managed to “never [take] their [feet] off the gas” and won in a landslide of 37-6.
During the first period, junior Nic Nora managed to break past Davenport’s defense and ran 24 yards to the end zone, scoring the game’s first touchdown. After they succeeded on the field goal kick, Tech managed to prevent the Panthers from advancing until redshirt senior D’Arren Vilsaint on the Panthers team got injured and a timeout was called. After regaining possession of the ball at 1:37, Junior Avery Kucharski kicked a 47 yard field goal, bringing the score to 10-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter started with a touchdown scored by Sophomore Elliott Larner within the first nine seconds. Shortly after, on the third down of the Panthers possession, one player accidentally body slammed a referee. The referee did a backwards roll and landed on his feet in a quick recovery. At 1:17, Jake Rueff managed to break away on the left side, traveling 27 yards before he was tackled. Immediately following this, Elliott Larner made another breakthrough, and was tackled 10 yards from the endzone. After two attempts, Nora managed to make it the final nine yards and scored a touchdown at 10:19. After a failed field goal and another touchdown by Abram Larnerby , the second quarter score was 30-0.
Four minutes into the third quarter, sophomore Abram Larner managed to score another touchdown, and with four minutes left in the third quarter, the Panthers managed to push their way towards the end zone; first on the 43 yard line, then the 32, the 28, the 22, and finally eight yards from the end zone with 22 seconds remaining. On their first down, Tech managed to push them back by four yards, and with only three seconds remaining, they failed to acquire any points, leaving the game at a shutout of 37-0 going into the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, Tech was unable to maintain the shutout, as in the fourth quarter Davenport scored two field goals at 14:13 and at 6:30, leaving with a final score of 37-6.
The next game will be against Wayne State University on Nov.14 at Kearley Stadium. This game will be the last one of the season, with senior football players being honored after the game.
