Michigan Tech ended the 2017 football season last Saturday. The Huskies fell 49-7 to the 11th ranked Bulldogs in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest.
“Ferris State did a really good job. They did what we wanted to be able to do, and that stopped the run and run the ball effectively on offense,” said head coach Steve Olson. “They were able to shut down our run game and we were able to run which set up some big plays in the play action passing game. It was a close hard fought game in the first half and then in the second half we gave them some short fields and they took advantage.”
Saturday was Senior Day for the Huskies. Seniors Hilding Beudoin, Cayman Berg-Morales, Jake Brown, Derek Cingel, Antwon Curtis, Derrick Diver, David Falish, Adam Francis, Josef Iwanicki, Sam Kitts, Spencer Moran, Carl Pietila, Mitchell Ryan, Luke Shulz, Alex Sherbinow, Cory Williams and John Williams were all honored. Throughout their football career, this group went undefeated against the rival Northern Michigan Wildcats as well as helped lead the Huskies to playoffs in the 2014 season.
The Huskies braved the cold and snow Saturday. The contest remained scoreless until 8:31 in the first quarter when Ferris State took over on the 20-yard line and went 80 yards for the first touchdown of the game. A Bulldog pass completion put the ball at the Huskies nine-yard line. Ferris State’s quarterback then ran for a nine-yard touchdown, making the score 7-0 with 3:10 left in the first quarter.
Michigan Tech responded with a six-play 65-yard scoring drive. Freshman quarterback Garrett Young found junior wide receiver Kevin Kirkland with a 50-yard pass play, putting the Huskies on the Bulldogs six-yard line. Young ran for the touchdown on fourth and goal from the one, tying the score at 7-7 with 42 seconds left to play in the first quarter. This was the only time the Huskies would see the end zone for the day. Ferris continued to find the end zone, bringing the final score 49-7.
Young ended the day with a completed six passes for 82 yards and boasted his first career rushing touchdown. Senior running back John Williams boasted 13 carries for 24 yards and Kirkland claimed two catches for 55 yards. As a team, the Huskies grabbed 145 total yards.
Defensively, sophomore linebacker Marvin Wright claimed a season high of 15 tackles as well as his third interception of the season. Wright was the leading tackler for the 2017 season totaling 102 stops. Senior defensive back Spencer Moran and sophomore defensive back Travis Tidwell grabbed 10 tackles each while senior defensive lineman Hilding Beaudoin grabbed five tackles and a sack for the Huskies.
The Huskies now head into the offseason to prepare for the 2018 season.
“We’ll have meetings on Monday and wrap up some things there, and we’ll start to set the tone for what we’ll do as we move forward to get ready for 2018,” Olson commented.
